Assessment of induced mutagenesis in dragon fruit Hylocereus monacanthus for abiotic stress tolerance

Abstract

Dragon fruit (Hylocereus spp.) is an exotic tropical fruit which has become increasingly popular in recent years. This crop is gaining popularity among growers and consumers due to its rich source of nutritive value such as pigments, vitamins, mineral contents, antioxidant properties and helps in preventing various diseases. Due to its narrow genetic base and low level of genetic variation, it is difficult to develop new cultivars through clonal selection method. Dragon fruit has been identified as a drought-tolerant crop. However, the severe drought condition directly influences the growth, yield and quality of the fruit. Keeping the above facts in view, the present investigation was carried out during 2021-22 and 2022-23 at Central Horticulture Experiment Station (ICAR-IIHR), Bhubaneswar with the objective to assess the induced mutagenesis in dragon fruit (Hylocereus monacanthus) for abiotic stress tolerance. newlineThe first experiment entitled Influence of EMS and and#436;-irradiation on germination, survivability, growth, biochemical attributes and nutrient content of dragon fruit seedlings was conducted consisting of 14 different doses of ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) mutagen (0.1%, 0.2%, 0.5%, and 1.0%) with each incubation period for 2 and 4 hours and and#61543;- irradiation (100Gy, 200Gy, 300Gy, 400Gy and 500Gy) to the seeds of dragon fruit including a control (untreated) following complete randomized design. The second experiment entitled Influence of moisture stress on growth, biochemical attributes, nutrient content and enzymatic activity of mutagenized dragon fruit seedlings was laid out in factorial complete randomized design involving two factors viz., fourteen different doses of mutagen including control and four different moisture stress conditions such as Field capacity (FC), 75% FC, 50% FC and 25% FC. newlineThe results of the first experiment showed that, mutagens had significant influence on various traits such as germination, survivability, growth, biochemical attributes and nutrient content of dragon fruit seedling