Effects of Ethyl Methane Sulphonate on Seed Germination and the Vigour Index of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

agriculture

We conducted laboratory experiments using ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) to induce mutation in wheat seeds. We subsequently performed inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) analysis to determine the mutational effects of EMS on seed germination and on the vigour index of wheat seeds. ISSR was assayed to determine genetic diversity using eight different concentrations of EMS) and 18 markers that enabled the treatment results to be compared. Among the 18 ISSR markers, marker 5 was associated with a high level of polymorphism (96.87%), whereas a lower level of polymorphism (32.81%) was associated with marker 16. All of the primers applied in the study enabled differentiation of the treatments. The results obtained using the primers numbered 3, 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 and 17 were satisfactory, whereas those obtained using the remaining nine primers were slightly better. There was a significant increase in the seed germination percentage (91%) at an EMS concentration of 1.50%, used in Treatment 7, with notable increases in the lengths of shoots (13 cm) and roots (9 cm). Moreover, at an EMS concentration of 1.50%, the fresh and dry weights of the seedlings increased significantly by 0.2353 g and 0.016 g, respectively. We conclude that the use of ISSR and ISSR markers to determine EMS mutagenesis is effective for analysing mutated wheat differentiation and for determining the effects of EMS on seed germination and the vigour index of wheat.

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