Production of salt tolerant rice mutants using gamma rays and anther culture

Summary

Rice is known to be less resistant to salt than many other crops. Excess of salt in soil limits the yield potential of most rice varieties. New rice genotypes with higher adaptation to salinity are therefore needed. In this work the combination of mutation induction and anther culture were used to produce rice mutants with tolerance to salinity. Seven commercial varieties of Costa Rica were irradiated with gamma rays from a Cobalt-60 source. Sixty four mutants from treated populations were selected as resistant to salinity. The number of productive tillers, number of grains per panicle and panicle length were much higher in some mutants than in parent varieties. It was also possible to select mutants with increased number of days to heading, a critical factor that limited production in parent varieties.