INDUCED POLLEN STERILITY IN INDIGOFERA TINCTORIA

摘要

Indigofera tinctoria (L.), commonly known as 'Ameri' or 'Nili' belongs to the family Fabaceae. The plant grows well in the wild as well as in the cultivated condition, all over India. The leaves and roots of this plant are being used in many preparations of the Ayurvedic system of medicine, to cure a variety of ailments. Earlier, the leaves of this plant were made use of in the manufacture of the dye 'indigo', which is being replaced now by the synthetic ones. The seeds of this plant were subjected to irradiation with different doses of gamma rays (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70. 80, 90 and 100 KR) and treatment with varying concentrations of ethyl methane sulphonate - EMS (0.3 and 0.6 per cent) and sodium azide NaN_3 - (0.005 and 0.01 per cent). Apartfrom single treatments, combination treatments of the various doses of gamma rays with the different concentrations of EMS and NaN_3 were also undertaken. The treated seeds were sown in the field according to a completely randomised block design and theplants were allowed to grow and flower. The pollen sterility was estimated by the aceto-carmine technique. The different mutagenic treatments were found to enhance the mean percentage of pollen sterility in majority of the cases, the highest value (99.15per cent), being with the combination treatment of 60 KR of gamma rays with 0.005 per cent of NaN_3 Among the different treatment groups, the mean percentage of pollen sterility was found to have the greatest value in the group containing the combination'treatments of different doses of gamma rays with 0.3 per cent (53.96 per cent). The different treatment groups were found to exhibit a highly significant variation among themselves, the maximum being with the group comprising of the combination treatments of various doses of gamma rays with 0.005 per cent NaN_3. A highly significant variation was observed between the soaked and the dry treatments and also within each one. Acetocarmine technique is not a fool proof method for the estimation of pollen viability. It has to be supplemented by studies on pollen germinaiton.