Studies of Gamma Irradiation on Performance of Turf Grass Species

Background: This experiment was conducted to study the effect of gamma irradiation on the quantitative traits of various turf grass species in the Malwa region. Turf grass, which is a primarily appreciated for its aesthetic and green cover, is important in industrial and rural areas to mitigate heat and drought stress with speeding development. However, the limited genetic variation in existing turfgrass varieties poses a challenge to breeding efforts aimed at improving stress tolerance and mutation is widely used for creating genetic variability in other crops to develop the varieties superior to parents and suitable for different climatic conditions. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the mutagenic effects of gamma irradiation on selected lawn grass species and optimizing the best suitable dose for Turf grass improvement. Methods: The experiment was conducted in Mandsaur (Madhya Pradesh), India to explore possibility of gamma irradiation’s impact on various characters of turf grass species. This experiment was conducted in randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. During the experiment, four different warm season grasses species were used, specifically Cynodon dactylon cv Burgasto, Zoysia materella, Dactyloctenium aegyptium and Nassella tenuissima, underwent treatment with different doses of gamma irradiation viz. 30 Gy, 60 Gy, 90 Gy and 120 Gray (Gy). To compare the effects, an untreated control treatment was also included in the study. Both quantitative as well as qualitative parameters were assessed. Result: The results revealed that reduced growth with higher gamma irradiation doses. Furthermore, indicated that irradiated sprigs displayed denser shoots, finer growth, shorter internodes, leaves and enhanced colour retention even in winters. Notably, 60 Gy and 90 Gy induced the highest number of mutants (seven in total). Thus, the study suggests that gamma irradiation at doses of 30 Gy to below 100 Gy can effectively induce genetic variation in grass species.