| Thermo-insensitive mutant of WH147 wheat variety
D. SINGH1, R.S. PARODA2 and V.P. SINGH3 Department of Plant Breeding, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India Wheat productivity in India has become more than double i.e. from 8.3 g/ha (1965-66) to 18.7 g/ha (1984-85) under irrigated, high fertility and good management conditions. But productivity under rainfed conditions remained static affecting about 40% of the area under this crop. To meet this demand, the work for breeding improved varieties for rainfed areas is going on in wheat section, Department of Plant Breeding and cultivars like C 306 and WH 331 were released/identified. To strengthen this project some mutation breeding programme was also taken up. Materials and Methods Wheat variety WH 147 which is found to be the best yielding variety under low input situations was treated with gama rays to isolate desirable mutants for rainfed conditions. From the segregating generation of 10 kR treatment a mutant was isolated. Phenotypically, this mutant was exactly similar to its prototype. However, this mutant was found to be thermo-insensitive while parent variety WH 147 is thermo-sensitive. Results and Discussion Experimental results indicate that this mutant is most suitable for rainfed conditions and its sowing can be done just after cessation of monsoon to ensure good germination and plant stand. Table 1 clearly showed that mutant is superior in tillering (17.6%), grains/ear (33.3%); biological yield (32.0%) and in grain yield (10.5%) than parent variety WH147. On the other hand its grain weight (10%) as well as harvest index (24.2%) are low compared to WH147. Translocation of dry matter to the grain was a limiting factor responsible for the low test weight of the seed in mutant (SHEORAN et al. 1983). Efforts are being made to improve this character by back crossing this mutant with its prototype WH147. |
| 1. Barley Breeder, HAU, Hisar 2. Director, NBPGR, IARI, New Delhi, India 3. Wheat Breeder, HAU Reg. Res. Station, Kaul (Kurukshetra) |
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