Study on induced mutants resembling commercial varieties in bread wheat

The occurrence of variants with phenotypic resemblance to the existing cultivated varieties of wheat, such as 'Sonalika', 'Arjun' and 'Kalyansona', evolved by hybridisation, has been found in various generations of the mutagen-treated populations of the variety 'Zaafrane'. The repetition and involvement of common genes in certain genotypes in the evolutionary history of these varieties is attributed to the induction of such intervarietal mutants.It is shown that selective reconstruction of a particular variety in bread wheat is not only possible, but also relatively easy, especially from a closely related variety.The study opens the possibility of utilising this method as a technique for developing components of a multiline.