Evaluation of morphological variation in rice varieties induced by chemical mutagen Ethyl Methane Sulfonate (EMS)

Mutation has been accepted as a useful tool in plant breeding programs to provide inheritable variability for selection. In this research, the effect of chemical mutagen Ethyl Methane Sulfonate (EMS) at three levels, 0.17%, 0.35% and 0.51% was studied to create the variation on morphological characteristics of Tarom Mahali, Sange Tarom and Tarom Hashemi varieties. The M1 generation was examined using a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications and the agronomic traits including plant height, number of tiller, panicle length, number of filled and unfilled grains per panicle, number of total grains per panicle, grain width and length and 100 grain weight were measured. Analysis of variance showed that the interaction effect of cultivar×EMS concentration was significant for total number of grains per panicle, number of unfilled grains per panicle and grain length at 5% probability level and for filled grains per panicle and 100 grain weight at 1% probability level. The effect of variety was significant for plant height and 100 grain weight at 1% and for panicle length at 5% probability level, while the EMS concentration was significant for the number of tiller, total number of grains and number of filled and unfilled grains per panicle at 5% probability level. Results of the comparison of means indicated that the application of EMS lead to increase in grain length, number of grains per panicle and 100 grain weight and decrease in plant height in rice varieties. Generally, results of current research showed that the EMS had considerable and significant effect on the 100 grains weight and plant height of rice varieties in M1 generation. Thus, EMS as the mutagens can be utilized for increasing of the variation and genetic improvement in breeding programs.