Assessment of chlorophyll and viable mutation in M2 generation of rice (Oryza sativa l.)

The present investigation was carried out to study the mutagenic effect of the chemical mutagen, EMS on two well known shortduration rice varieties viz., ADT 43 and ADT 45 of Tamil Nadu, South India. A wide spectrum of chlorophyll mutants namelyalbino, xantha and chlorina were observed in all the treatments in M2 generation. The albino type were most frequent andchlorina were least common. The treatments produced the relative frequency and wide spectrum of viable mutants like early,spreading, narrow leaf, lax panicle, hairy grain, awned grain and grain length mutants in M2 generation. Early mutants wereobserved maximum at 0.8 per cent EMS in ADT 43, while spreading mutants were observed maximum at 0.8 per cent EMS inADT 45. Maximum narrow leaf mutants were observed at 0.6% EMS in ADT 43.