LAUSR

PURPOSE During post-rainy and rice fallow cropping seasons, popular blackgram varieties are severely affected by powdery mildew leading to severe yield loss. The lack of natural genetic variability for powdery mildew resistance in blackgram germplasm warrants mutation breeding. Hence, in this study, blackgram cultivar CO6 was mutagenized with gamma ray and ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS) to create variability for powdery mildew resistance. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seeds of blackgram CO6 were irradiated with three doses of gamma ray (200 Gy, 300 Gy and 400 Gy) followed by two doses of ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS; 20 and 30 mM) to achieve six combination treatments. Selected resistant mutants of M2 generation were characterized for agronomic, histological, enzyme and biochemical traits along with powdery mildew resistant LBG 17 and susceptible CO6 checks. Molecular variability was studied using 72 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. RESULTS In the M2 generation, 60 powdery mildew resistant mutants were identified and a total of 25 high yielding mutants were evaluated further to confirm powdery mildew resistance and yield. Nine resistant mutants (PM 13, PM 20, PM 21, PM 42, PM 53, PM 54, PM 56, PM 57 and PM 60) and the resistant check (LBG17) showed significantly higher values for leaf density, trichome density, SOD, CAT, POX, PPO, total phenols, phytic acid and silica content. SSR markers viz., CEDG154, CEDG290, CEDG139, CEDG259, CEDG191, CEDG024, CEDG 282, CEDG 166, CEDG 232 and CEDG 088 were found polymorphic between resistant mutants and the parent CO6. CONCLUSION The study has demonstrated that sufficient variability was induced in the blackgram for powdery mildew resistance. The elevated levels of SOD, CAT, POX, PPO, total phenols, phytic acid, and silica content observed in selected mutants may be attributed to powdery mildew resistance. The superior mutants identified in this study may be used as donors for the development of powdery mildew resistant lines or released as a new variety.