Evaluation of mutation breeding by gamma rays on M3 generation plants for improvement of Gypsophila elegans M.Bieb plant

Radwan, Ragab M.S.; El-Khateeb, M.A.; Eid, Rawia A.; Abd El-Aziz, Nahed G.; Ashour, Hossam A.

doi:10.21608/jow.2025.375460.1007

Evaluation of mutation breeding by gamma rays on M3 generation plants for improvement of Gypsophila elegans M.Bieb plant

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Ornamental Plants and Woody Trees Department, Agricultural and Biological Research Institute, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

² Department of Ornamental Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo university

³ Department of Ornamental Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University

10.21608/jow.2025.375460.1007

Abstract

Gypsophila is one of the basic plants of ornamentals. It is valued as a cut flower in floristry to add as a filler to flower bouquets and in gardens landscaping. This study focused on evaluation of mutation breeding (MB) by gamma rays on M3 plants for improvement of G. elegans plant and determined of proper doses for (MB) which can increase the turnout of its market. Irradiation treatments were performed on the seeds in M1 only, the seeds were mutated with six different dosages from (10 – 60 Gy) using Gamma-1 type cobalt60. The Results declared that that control plants gave the maximum germination percentage; in contrast, the lowest value was achieved with 60 Gy. Using gamma at 10, 20 and 40 Gy, improved the morphological characters, such as plant height, leaves number, stems diameter, roots length, early flowering, and flowers production. Meanwhile, 50 and 60 Gy had a negative effect, and decreased these characters to the lowest values, but increased the number of days elapsed to flowering. The correlation relationship among the plant height and all morphological characters, was medium significant correlation (r = 50 to 70) to very high (r=70 to 90) except for No. of days to flowering and No. of internodes which showed a high significant negative correlation with them. Many mutants in flower color, and shape were obtained. Using gamma radiation increased (RWC) above 70%, but decreased (EL) and (MSI). Utilizing gamma at 10 and 20 Gy gave the highest values of anatomical characters.

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