SPONTANEOUS SOMATIC MUTATION FREQUENCY FOR SEED COLOR IN A MUTABLE CHICKPEA PURE LINE AND ITS MODIFICATION BY CHEMICAL MUTAGENS

Abstract

A highly mutable chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) pure line, producing two seed colors, is described. Black seeds of the pure line when planted produced 35.66, 3.33 and 61.33% of all-black, all-mottled and mixed individuals, whereas mottled seeds of the same pure line produced 23.16, 5.33 and 71.16% of the same three groups, respectively. Spontaneous mutation rate per plant was quite high (0.50) and on the average, black seed color was 2.7 times more stable than mottled seed color. Treatment with two chemical mutagens, namely ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) and sodium azide (NaN3), caused no significant changes in mutation frequencies.