Abstract. The aim of this investigation was to study agronomic and morphological traits of winter two-rowed barley mutant lines in the M6 and M7 generations. Eight mutant lines, their parent -breeding line 244D and national standard cultivars -Obzor and Emon were evaluated in Complete Block Design with four replications. The research was conducted in the 2013/2014, 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 growing
IntroductionBarley is one of the major grain crop. Its distribution is worldwide and is of considerable economic importance for animal feed and malt production. To improve yield and other traits in barley, many breeding techniques are being used successfully. Mutation breeding is one of the important techniques to induce variation. The mutant cultivars in different crops had a great economic impact on agriculture and food productions (Ahloowali et al., 2004). More than 300 varieties of barley have been officially released by mutation breeding technique (Joint FAO/IAEA Mutant Variety Database).Mutation breeding is part of the winter barley breeding program at the Institute of Agriculture, Karnobat and it has led to improved barley cultivars with higher yield (Vulchev and Dyulgerova, 2011;Dyulgerova and Vulchev, 2012; ). Dyulgerova, 2017 Natural or induced genetic diversity can be promoted for the improvement of all major crops and the use of mutagenesis to create novel variation in particularly valuable crops with limited genetic variability. The use of mutagenesis in breeding has involved the selection of individual mutants with improved traits and their incorporation into breeding programmes (Parry et al., 2009). The mutants developed in barley had great potential for direct release and to include them in cross breeding programme. Many barley cultivars possess tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress and improved traits developed in the world through induced mutagenesis (Ahloowali et al., 2004).The aim of this investigation was to study agronomic and morphological traits of winter two-rowed barley mutant lines in the M6 and M7 generations.
Material and methodsThe research work was conducted during 2013/2014, 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 growing seasons at the Institute of Agriculture,Karnobat. For mutation induction the seeds pre-soaked in water for 16 hours were treated with 2 mM sodium azide for 2 hours, prepared in a buffer solution (pH=3) at room temperature and washed for 6 hours after treatment. The M1 plants grown in field were harvested in bulk. In M2 generation one spike per selected plant was harvested and the seeds of each M2 spike were sown in the field as spike to row progeny for M3 generation. The parent variety was planted in every 10 rows as a check. The mutants were developed through selection for higher yield than the parental material by applying selection pressure from M2-M6. Finally, the selected lines were tested in yield trial in the present investigation. The 8 mutants and their parent -breeding line 244D and national standard cultivars -Obzor and Emon were evaluated in yield trial in Complete Bl...