FREQUENCY AND SPECTRUM OF MUTATIONS INDUCES BY SEPARATE AND SIMULTANEOUS APPLICATIONS OF GAMMA RAYS AND NMU IN LENTIL (LENS CULINARIS MED) VAR. T36

Dry and dormant seeds of lentil (Lens culinaris Med.) var. T36 were treated with 5, 10 and 15 Kr of gamma rays and 0.02% NMU, both separate and simultaneous treatment of the two mutagens were applied. The paper reports the frequency of vital mutations observed in the M2 population and the M3 breeding behaviour of the isolated mutants. The spectrum of mutations for different treatment combinations has been presented. NMU was found to be more effective as a mutagen than gamma rays. Simultaneous treatment with NMU enhanced the efficiency of gamma rays to some extent, however, the combined treatments did not reveal synergistic influence of the two mutagens.