Mutagenic effect of sodium azide on winter barley cultivars

Abstract. The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of the chemical mutagen sodium azide on winter barley cultivars Monika and Imeon for its efficient utilization in a mutation breeding program of winter barley. A preliminary study of the effect of concentrations of 1 mM, 2 mM, 3 mM, and 4 mM sodium azide on laboratory germination and shoot and root length was conducted. A significant decrease in laboratory germination, shoot, and root length was found in all applied mutagen concentrations. Based on the mean reduction in shoots and roots length 1 mM sodium azide was selected for induction of mutant populations. Analysis of variance showed that mutagenic treatment significantly affected all studied traits except the number of spikes per plant in the M1 generation. Genotype-treatment interaction had a significant influence on plant height, spike length, number of spikelets and grains per spike, grain weight per spike and per plant, and 1000-grain weight indicated that there was a genotype-specific response to the applied mutagen. Cultivar Imeon reacted with a higher reduction of yield-related traits compared to cultivar Monika in the M1 generation. The more sensitive to SA cultivar Imeon gave a higher frequency of chlorophyll mutations in M2 generation.