Induced variations of ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenized cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. walp) plants

Muhammed Opoku Gyamfi; John Saviour Yaw Eleblu; Lawrencia Gyamfi Sarfoa; Isaac Kojo Asante; Frank Opoku-Agyemang; Eric Yirenkyi Danquah

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.952247

Induced variations of ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenized cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. walp) plants

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Aug 5:13:952247. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.952247. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Muhammed Opoku Gyamfi^{1

2}, John Saviour Yaw Eleblu^{1

3}, Lawrencia Gyamfi Sarfoa^{2

3}, Isaac Kojo Asante^{1

4}, Frank Opoku-Agyemang^{1

2}, Eric Yirenkyi Danquah^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
² Department of Crop Science, School of Agriculture, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
³ Biotechnology Centre, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
⁴ Department of Plant and Environmental Biology, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.

Abstract

Unique variants are desired in the development of genetically improved crops to meet farmer and market needs hence ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) was used to induce genetic variability in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata cv. Asontem). The main objective of this research was to characterize induced variations in EMS chemically mutagenized population of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp Var. Asontem) in the M₁ and M₂ generations. The optimum concentration (LD50) of EMS for generating the mutagenized population was determined by treating seeds with different concentrations of EMS (0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8% v/v) and observing the germination count after 5 days of planting the seeds in Petri dishes. Three thousand cowpea seeds were treated with the 0.4% EMS to generate the M₁ and M₂ populations that were evaluated for agronomic and morphological traits with untreated seeds serving as control. Data analysis involved distribution of qualitative and quantitative traits. Germination was significantly reduced in the mutagenized population (17.8%) and compared with that of the wild type (61.6%). Percentage survival was significantly higher in wild type (98.38%) as compared with the M₁ population (78.46%). Percentage germination in the M₂ population (74.03%) was lower than the wild type (80%). A wide spectrum of agro-morphological abnormalities was observed in the M₂ population. Wide variations and uniquely different phenotypic classes were observed in leaf color, leaf shape, growth habit, plant pigmentation, twining tendency, pod curvature, seed shape, and seed coat color. M₂ individuals were widely distributed for days to flowering, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, number of locules per pods, percentage seed set, pod length and number of seeds per plant. In conclusion, the EMS mutagenesis was effective in inducing the unique variations that will be useful for breeding and development of new farmer preferred varieties.

Keywords: EMS; M1 generation; M2 generation; mutation; variability.