Evaluation of in vitro-geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) plants affected by irradiation and chemical mutagens

The current investigation was performed to establish the influence of gamma rays, He–Ne laser and colchicine & dinitroaniline as chemical mutagens on micropropagation of geranium (Pelargonium graveolens), its oil components and genetic diversity. Survival percentage, plant height, branch numbers, leaf numbers, fresh weight and essential oil percentage were recorded. Applications of gamma rays and He–Ne laser light had a vital impact on vegetative development characters and oil induction of geranium. The treated samples also showed improving the volatile oil and their compounds when compared to the mother plant. The highest result of γ-rays different doses was confirmed on plant height, branch numbers, leaf numbers and volatile oil percent. Laser light samples exhibited a further pronounced outcome on the development parameters of P. graveolens. Colchicine and dinitroaniline increased survival percentages and other related potential agronomic traits. The GC-MS analyses of the volatile oil showed that the total identified components are ranged from 79.35% in mother plants to 96.97% in 5 Gy of γ-rays. Here, 44 volatile compounds included 5 important were identified in the essential oils; citronellol, geraniol, citronellylformate, L-linalool and l-menthone were most predominant of the all samples. At molecular level, 6 RAPD primers showed a sum of 60 amplified fragments, of which fifty (83.33%) were polymorphic fragment. The number of sum of total amplified fragments scored per primer ranged between 7 (primer-OP-Q18) to 16 (primer-OP-A01). Fourteen out of 60 RAPD fragments were found to be useful as specific markers. In ISSR analysis, 6 ISSR primers amplified variable banding pattern. A sum of 59 Out of 73 ISSR fragments, were polymorphic. Also, 27 produced fragments were considered as specific markers. In the recent investigation certain physical mutagens (γ-rays and laser beam) and chemical mutagens (colchicine and dinitroanilne) were performed for improving morpho-physiological and yield traits. The applied mutagens resulted in noteworthy variations in all assessed traits due to the usage of mutagens, indicating their efficiency for causing more useful genetic diversity in other plants material for improving agronomic features.