ANNALS OF ARID ZONEVol. 12, No.1 & 2, March & June, 1973

EFFECT OF GAMMA IRRADIATION ON YIELDAND QUALITY OF GUAR (CY A MOPSI8

TETRAGONOLOBA ) L. TAUB.

M. S. CHAUDHARY, HEr RA.M, R. S. HOODA AND KULDIP SINGH DHINDSA.

HARYANA AGRICULTURAl.UNIVERSITY, HISSAlt

( Received on 23.12.1971)

ABSTRACT

The seeds of guar (CY'lmop8i8 tetragQnoloba L. Taub.)were irradiated with 2,5, 10, 15 and 20 Kr doses of gammarays and the X2 population was raised at the ResearchFarm of Haryana Agricultural University Hissar. Investi-gations were made to study the effect of irradiation ongrain }'ield and its protein and gum contents. Yield perplant has been found to increase with increasing doses ofgamma rays. Similar trend has been observed for proteincontent of the grains. The gum. content was also higherin all the gamma ray treatments as compared to control.

INTRODUCTION

Guar is an important crop both from fodder and grain point ofview and is grown mainly in arid and semi-arid zones of Haryana andRajasthan. It is known for its ability to withstand drought condition inaddition to enriching the soil by fixing atmo~pheric nitrogen. The seeds ofguar have high nutritive value for livestock and possess high percentage ofgum which has industrial importance. Attempts for genetic improvement ofthis crop have been handicapped due to limited variability in germplasm

20 M.S. CHAUDHARY, HET RAM, R.o;;.HOODA AND KULDIP SINGH DHINDH.

collections. Of late, the use of radiations to create variability in th~ crops11.Ive received attention. Inspired by the work of Gustafsson (1947) andHoffmann_ (1951), who obtained high yielding mutants in barley by use ofgamma rays, work has been undertaken in these laboratories on guar.Some new variants produced by irradiation of guar seed~ have been reportedand their cytology studied (Chludhary et ai, 1971). There are reports inliterature that irradiation affects growth habits, yield and chemical compositionof grains (MacKey, 1954; Gregory, 1955; Pollhamer, 1960; Palamarcuk; 1961;and Manzyuk and Kozachenko, 1970). In the light of above reportsit was considered of interest to study the effect of various doses of gammarays on grain yield and protein and gum contents of guar.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In the present investigations F. S. 277 variety of guar was used.The seeds were treated with gamma rays in the laboratories of IndianAgricultural Rcsearche Institute, New Delhi. Five doses of gamma rays i e.2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 Kr along with control (untreated seeds) were tried. Thusthere were, in all, six treatments which were replicated three times. TheX2 population was raised from the seeds of X 1 at the Research Farm ofHaryana Agricultural University, Hissar. At the time of maturity, the yielddata per plant were taken and the treatmentwise samples were analysedfor protein and gum contents. Protein was estimated by the methods ofMcKenzie and Wallance (1954). The method adopted for the estimationof gum was a modification of the method of Dubois et ai. (1956) reportedby Gupta (1969). The .resultsare presented in table I.

Table 1. Effect of gamma irradiation on gram yield andprotein and gum contents or guar

Treatment IYieldgamma radiation per plant

(Kr) (g) IProtein IProtein I Ipercentage production per Gumplallt (g) percentagt

Gumproduction oerplant (g)

0 (Control) 23.78 27.50 6.54 19.44 4.622 24.07 27.85 6.70 19.49 4685 24.2 27.92 6.76 19.69 4.76

10 24.4 28.00 6.83 19.55 4.7715 24.5 28.90 7.08 19.45 4.7720 24.55 29.25 7.18 19.72 4.84

l _

EFFECT OF GAMMA IRRADIATION ON YIELD AND QUALITY OF GUAR .: 21

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

It is evident from the table that the grain yield per plant isincreased by treatment of seeds with gamma rays. A minimum yield of23.78 gm per plant bas been obtained from control plal'lts, whereas it ismaximum for the plants grown from tbe seeds treated with 20 Kr doseof gamma rays. The grain yield per plant increases gradually as the doseof gamma rays is increased. These results find support from the work ofGustafsson (1947) and Hoffmann (1951) who obtained high yielding mutantsby use of gamma rays on barley. Similar results have been reported byMacKey (1954) in barIey and Gregory (1955) in peanut.

It is interesting to note that gamma rays have pronounced effecton the protein content of guar grains. Minimum protein c:mtent (27.50%)has been observed in the grains obtained from cont'rol plants and itincreases gradually with increasing dose of gamma rays. The increase illmore marked at the doses 15 Kr and 20 Kr. The protein production perplant also shows a regular increase with increasing dose of gamma rays·and it is more by 9.5 per cent in 20 Kr treatment as compared to control. Theseresults are in conformity with the findings of Palamarcuk (1961) whoreported an increase in the protein content of X-ray irradi~ted red cloverwith doses of 3 and 15 Kr. Sirsov and Sain (1966) have also observed asimilar increase in protein content of gamma irradiated fodder of broad beanvariety. An increase in protein content of gamma irradiated barley has alsobeen observed by Manzyuk and Kozachenko (1970).

The gum content of guar grains is also improved by irradiation., Thoughno consistent trend could be observed for the gum content, it is evident that thisvalue is higher in all the treatments as compared to control. The highest valueof 19.72 percent has been found with 20 Kr dose. The production of gumper plant is minimum in control and it increases gradually with increasing dosesof gamma rays. The inc::reaseis better marked for the 20 Kr treatment.

Studies reported here are of preliminary nature and it would be immatureto draw any definite conclusions from the present data. Work is being extendedto study the effect of higher doses of gamma-rays on guar. It is expected thatirradiation may lead to some mutants which will give higher grain yield ofbetter quality.

22 'M.S. CHAUDHARY, BET RAM, R.S. HOODA AND KULDIP SINGH DHiNDSA

ACKNOWLED8EMENT

Thanks are due to Dr. N. D. Arora, Professor and Head, Departmentof Plant Breeding, and Dr. P. S. Tomer, Agronomiit (Bajra), Haryana AgricultureUniversity, Hissar for their valuable suggestions.

REFERENCES

Chaudhary, M. S. 1971, Radiation induced variations in guar. Euphytica(Communicated).

Dubois, M., Gilles, K. A., Hamilton, J. K., Rebers, P. A. and Smith, F. 1956.Colorimetric method for determination of sugars and related substances.Ann. Chem. 28:350.

Gregory, W. C. 1955. X-ray breeding of peanuts Arachis hypogea. Agron. J.,47 : 396-399.

Gupta, O. P. 1969. Studies on galactomannans in guar. MSc Thesis. IndianAgricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.

Gustafsson, A. 1947. Mutations in agricultural plants. Hereditas. 33 : 1-100.Hoffmann, W. 1951. Ergebuisse der Mutationzuchtung. In vortrage uber

Pfalanzenzuchtung, 36: Lund-U, Forstue forschungerat. ev. Bonn.Mac Key, J. 1951. Neutron and x-ray experiments in barley. Hereditas,

37 : 421-64.Manryuk, V. T. and Kozachenko, M. R. 1970. Mutational variability induced

by gamma irradiation in barley hybrids and their parental form.Genetics, Moskva, 6 (7) : 35 -43.

McKenzie, H. A. and Wallance, H. S. 1954. The micro-Kjeldhal determinationof nitrogen. Aust. J. Chern; 7 : 25.

Palamarcuk, A. S. 1961. The effect of ionizing radiation and gibberellin onred clover and the after effect of the radiation on the F1 ane Fa Ukrain.J. Bot, 18 : 49-61.

Pollhamer, E. 1960. Mutation experiments with spring barley III. Studies onthe variation of mutants of the spring barley varieties MFB 104.Novelltermeles, 9: 27 - 38.

Sirsov, V. A. and Sain, S. S. 1966. The variability of leguminous crops underthe influence of gamma irradiation. Trans. Moscow Soc. Nat. BioI. Sect;23; 159 63.