A radiation-induced highly productive mutant in sorghum

The possibility of using induced mutations for developing highly productive lines of Sorghum were examined herein. Mutant plants arising in the progeny of induced interchange heterozygotes of grain Sorghum variety I. S. 3566 were studied. The mutants were classified and considered under three different height classes of “2-Dwarf”, “1-Dwarf” and “0-Dwarf”. The “2-Dwarf” (tall) plants were observed to produce more grains than the “3-Dwarf ” (short) controls. Other vegetative and panicle characters in the apparently true-breeding mutant were also affected including increased numbers of leaves, nodes and productive tillers. The mutant plant produced red grains on compact panicles of reduced length compared to chalky white grains on the semicompact panicles of the untreated controls. An increase in grain weight of about 21 per cent was shown in selfed progenies studied through successive generations. The observed increase in yield can be traced to an increased number of grains produced on the main and tiller panicles.