Identification of variability for agronomically important traits in rice mutant families

ABSTRACT The increase of yield potential in new rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties has been a major challenge for genetic improvement. The generation of mutants, followed by their characterization, constitutes a great possibility to isolate and select genes and genotypes that present agronomic traits of interest. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of chemical mutagen ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) on agronomic traits in 340 M3 families of rice derived from BRS Querência cultivar. Seeds from each family and the original genotype BRS Querência were sown in the experimental field, and the characters main panicle length, main panicle weight, main panicle grain weight, flag leaf width and plant height were evaluated. Data were subjected to analysis of variance (p ≤ 0.05), and a comparison of means was carried out by Dunnett's test at 5% significance. The results show that there is genetic variability among the mutant families, suggesting that the mutagen EMS at 1.5% is effective for generating mutants for all assessed traits. Among the characters, plant height was the most affected by the mutagen, which provided an increase in the character. For the main panicle length character, seven families showed means above the control; for main panicle weight and grain weight, four and six mutant families were observed, respectively, with a superior performance in comparison to the control