Vol. 8, Issue 10, Part D (2024)

The present research work entitled “effect of EMS on in vitro chemical mutagenesis in banana cultivar Tella Chekkerakeli (AAA)” was carried out at Tissue Culture Laboratory at Dr. YSRHU- Horticulture Research Station, Kovvur, Andhra Pradesh during the period 2023-2024. Immature male flower buds of banana cv. Tella Chakkerakeli (AAA) were used as explants and treated with various concentrations of EMS (0%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, 1.00%, 1.25% and 1.50%) for 60 min. and 120 min. duration. Among various EMS treatments, maximum survival percentage (93.05%) was recorded in EMS 0.25% for 60 min. and minimum survival percentage was noticed in EMS 1.50% for 120 min. The EMS dose of 0.25% applied for 60 min was found best combination among all treatments in terms of initiate early visual appearance of CLBs (33.83 days), maximum number of shoots (5.38 in C₁ cycle and 8.17 in C₂ cycle) in 2 multiplication cycles and maximum number of roots (5.31). Data revealed that the mutagenic agent concentration and duration of exposure had profound effect on explant survival and other growth parameters as against control. The results of this experiment exhibited LD₅₀ dose value of 1.433% EMS concentration for 60 min. and 0.827% for 120 min. exposure.