Impact of Gamma Rays on Pollen and Spikelet Fertility in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Gowthami R.1,*, Vanniarajan C.1, Souframanien J.2 1Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural Unversity, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India 2Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai *email: gowthamir111@gmail.com
Online published on 23 December, 2016. Abstract The present study was carried out to know the effect of different doses (100Gy, 200Gy, 300Gy, 400Gy and 500Gy) of gamma rays on two rice varieties viz., ADT37 and ADT-45 in terms of pollen and spikelet fertility. Results showed that pollen fertility and spikelet fertility in M1 generation reduced steadily with the increasing doses of gamma rays and maximum pollen sterility and spikelet fertility was recorded at higher dose (500 Gy). Pollen fertility may be influenced by many environmental factors as shown by the control. The control seedlings showed only 10.46% and 8.75% pollen sterility for ADT 37 and ADT 45 respectively. In M1 generation of ADT 37, pollen sterility percentage ranged from 19.74 per cent (100 Gy)to57.41 per cent (500 Gy)and for ADT 45 from 18.09 per cent (100 Gy) to 59.89 per cent (500 Gy). On the basis of shape of pollen, the sterile pollens were classified in to four groups, namely completely sterile (CS), partially Sterile (PS), triangle shaped sterile (TS) and shapeless sterile (SS). In control of the both varieties, percentage of PS was high followed by CS, while the occurrence of TS and SS was very low. On the contrast in the irradiated population, percentage of CS was higher at lower dose followed by SS, while at higher doses it was in opposite direction, i.e., increased percentage of SS followed by CS. Hence from the present investigation it was observed that percentage of CS was decreased with increase in dose, while the SS was increased with increase in dose in a linear fashion. Top Keywords Gamma rays, pollen fertility, spikelet fertility. Top |