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| PNL Volume 21 1989 RESEARCH REPORTS  
                          
        61 | ||
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| EFFICIENCY OF SELECTION FOR MICROMUTATIONS IN M2 
      GENERATION IN PEAS | ||
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| Singh, N.P. and B. Sharma    
                          
                          
                          
        Division of Genetics Indian Agric. Res. Institute, New Delhi, India Comparative studies of selection in 
      M2 and M3 generations have revealed that in many 
      cases the two populations may not differ in response to selection (4,5). 
      On the other hand, some experiments have demonstrated that selection in M3 
      is more effective than in M2 (1,2). This was, most probably, 
      because the material already selected in M2 was confirmed with 
      higher probability in subsequent generations (3). Even if the material 
      selected in M3 or later generations has a higher probability of 
      becoming fixed as promising strains, there is no evidence to suggest that 
      the frequency of promising mutations per se is higher in M3 
      than in M2. It-can be argued that the variability manifested in 
      M3 could not have arisen afresh without causing any impact on the 
      M2 population. Therefore in the present study selection was 
      initiated in the M2 generation on the basis of higher CV 
      (variability) and desired shift in mean than the highest values in these 
      parameters in the control (untreated population) for five polygenic traits 
      (days to flowering, pods/plant, seeds/pod, 100-seed weight and 
      yield/plant). The criterion for confirmation of the promising families in 
      M3 was the shift in mean values in the desired direction. The 
      selection efficiency in M2 generation, calculated on the basis 
      of this criterion, is presented in Tables 1 and 2. As can be seen from Table 2, 
      76.2-79.8% of M2 selections were confirmed as promising in the 
      M3 generation. This suggests that selection in M2 was very 
      effective and dependable. Some characters showed an increase in variance 
      with the advance in generation to M3, which is confirmed by the 
      fact that a further 22.2-24.8% of promising progenies were identified in M3. 
      Nevertheless, early generation selection is of great help in reducing the 
      volume of work, in saving time, and in isolation of confirmed mutations. 
      As can be seen from Table 2, the contribution of the M2 and M3 
      generations to total selections arising from the different treatments was 
      75.2-77.8% and 22.2-24.8%, respectively. Thus, although new mutated 
      progenies (about one-fourth of total) were added in the M3 
      generation (progenies which were either not identified in M2 or 
      were new additions as a result 
      of release of additional variability), the volume of material has to be 
      increased very substantially in order to recover this smaller additional variability of a 
      promising nature. The overall analysis of the results 
      obtained reveals that there is tremendous possibility to improve polygenic 
      characters through induced mutagenesis by employing an efficient selection 
      technique. It is evident that rigorous selection can help identify 
      promising variants from the mutagenized populations in the first 
      segregating (M2) generation. These variants can simultaneously 
      be confirmed and their potential tested in the M3 
      generation. | ||
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| 1.   Jana, M.K. and K. Roy. 1973. 
      Radiation Bot. 13:245-257. 2.    Palezona, D.L. 1966. Proc. V. 
      Yugoslav Symp. on Research in Wheat 
    12:255-261. | ||
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| 62 | PNL Volume 
      21 1989 RESEARCH REPORTS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 3.    Ravi, J.L. and Manocha and Avtar 
      Singh. 1979. Proc. BARC Symp. on Role of Induced Mutations in Crop 
      Improvement, Hyderabad, pp. 414-419. 4.   Scossiroli, R.E. 1968. Mutations 
      in Plant Breeding II. IAEA, Vienna, pp. 205-217. 5.   Sharma,S.K. 1977. Ph.D. Thesis, 
      IARI, New Delhi. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Table 1. Selection efficiency for 
      micromutations in M2 and M3 generations (pooled over five 
      traits). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Table 2. Nature of M2 
      selections and their contribution to total micromutations (pooled over 
      five traits). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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