Assessment of agro-morphological and grain quality parameters of Badshabhog mutant lines developed through EMS mutagenesis

Rice among other important cereal crops is indispensable to food security for at least half the world population. Genetic variation is essential for development of suitable new crop types. Since thousands of years ago during rice domestication process, high selection pressure caused narrowing of genetic variation. EMS Mutagenesis is one of the best approach that is capable to create changes in genetic material and development of new competent variation. This work assessed mutant populations of Badshabhog for various quantitative as well as qualitative parameters. The effective dose for mutation induction in the background of Badshabhog was determined to be 0.113 M. Physico-chemical and biochemical contents are key parameters for rice grain quality assessment. Among the population, mutant lines showed significant variations among different agro-morphological, physico and biochemical parameters in comparison with Badshabhog. Higher variation frequency and Shannon’s diversity index value were observed for plant height, leaf width, stem thickness, panicle length, presence and distribution of awn, grain length and weight, amylose content. Pearson’s correlation coefficient estimation represented sixteen significantly correlated parameters associated with agro-morphology and grain quality. High GCV, PCV and percent mean of genetic advance value for majority of the parameters supported the heritable genetic nature of the resulting variations within the mutant lines. Principal component analysis described the trait arrangement according to the factor loading values of the parameters. UPGMA clustering also visualized the grouping pattern of mutant genotypes and represented the variations in term of distance with Badshabhog, ensuring the occurrence of significant variations using EMS. Mutant lines 4, 11, 12, 14, 38 were best among all the M4 mutant population with short height, long flag leaf, long panicles, high panicle weight and grain numbers, grain length and weight, soft with lower cooking time, high elongation ratio, rich with bio-chemical contents. Seed treatment with EMS was found to be an efficient technique for creating variability in different parameters of Badshabhog and improved mutant rice lines can be taken as valuable resources in future rice research.