Abstract
Three commercial varieties of flue-cured tobacco viz., Chatham, Delcrest and Hicks were subjected to neutron irradiation using six different doses ranging from 1×1012 to 5×1013 N/cm2/sec. The N1 generation was grown in the field during 1959–60. Only plants from the lowest two doses viz., 1×1012 and 2.5×1012 N/cm2/sec. survived in the field up to the adult stage. From this material, normal plants with high pollen fertility were selected for testing their performance in replicated trials.
The progenies of the selected plants were raised in the field during 1960–61. The data collected showed that although there were no significant differences in the means in some characters there was a significant shift in the variance among treated plants as compared to the control. Advantage was taken of this greater variance among the treated progenies and selections were made for certain specific characters viz. narrow leaf and long internodes in Chatham, broader leaf, late flowering and greater leaf number in Delcrest and Hicks.
A new leaf mutant in the variety Delcrest was isolated which was found to be agronomically superior to the untreated control. This mutant is characterised by hooding of the leaf tip and is designated ‘leaf tip hooded’.
Replicated trials were conducted for the narrow leaf and long internoded types in Chatham, the ‘leaf tip hooded’ in Delcrest and the late flowering selections in Hicks, during 1962–63. The narrow leaf selection in Chatham bred true. The long internode type was found to be segregating. The leaf tip hooded mutant in Delcrest was found to breed true and has also maintained its superior performance.
The achievements and scope of the mutation breeding programme in flue-cured tobacco have been broadly discussed.
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Murty, G.S., Krishnamurthy, K.V. Improvement of flue-cured tobacco by means of ionising radiation. Euphytica 12, 285–293 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00027464
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00027464