The Effect of Ethyl Mathane Sulphonate (Ems) on Genetic Improvement on Tomato

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted to investigate the genetic effect of ethyl mathane sulphonate (EMS) on four tomato varieties. These varieties were Pritchared (1), Money Maker (2), No.10 (3) and Bison (4). Air-dried seeds of these varieties were treated with 0.10% EMS. Treated and untreated seeds of the four tomato varieties were individually sown and crossed according to half diallel program. EMS treatment induced slight improvement on plant height, yield components (fruit number, fruit weight and fruit yield), earliness of flowering and Vit. C content in all tomato varieties. Heterosis values over the mid parents and the better parent were recorded a highly improvement and increased for all studied traits in tomato hybrids after EMS treatment than their respective control. On the other hand, EMS treatment caused a reduction in inbreeding depression for all studied traits in tomato plants than their respective control. The highest values of hybrid vigor over the mid-parents were recorded after mutagenic treatment with EMS in hybrids: 1X4 (earliness of flowering -7.07%, fruit number 53.85% and Vit. C content 60.77%); 1X3 (fruit weight 43.26% and fruit yield 150.00%) and 2X3 (plant height 33.77%). On the other hand, The lowest values of inbreeding depression were observed after mutagenic treatment with EMS in hybrids: 2X3 (plant height 8.33%); 1X3 (fruit number 7.50% and fruit yield 9.99%); 1X4 (fruit weight 10.30%); 3X4 (Vit. C content 13.30%) and 1X2 (earliness of flowering -4.95%).