Improvement of mung bean through induced mutations

Two mung varieties were treated with gamma rays. The radiation treatments have been effective in inducing considerable variation for a number of characters of economic value e.g. yield/plant, grain size, number of pods/plant, days to flower and protein content. The quality of proteins was also changed, some of the M2 progenies showed a greater range of variation in the content of methionine and tryptophan. The treatment with 70 kr. was found to be more effective than 30 kr. But the 30 kr. treatment had a stimulating effect on plant growth which was associated with low seed yield. All early maturing mutants were found to be less seed yield productive. The present study has indicated that mutation breeding results in an increase in variation for all quantitatively inherited characters but there was a decrease in the general mean of the irradiated population, with some exceptions.