Effects of gamma radiation on germination and growth characteristics of spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb.)

Abstract

Spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb.) is originated in Indo Malaya region and widely distributed in tropical and sub-tropical parts of India and adapted to a wide range of soil and climatic conditions (Basumatary et al. 2014). It is highly nutritious vegetable containing high amount of protein as compared to other cucurbitaceous vegetables with a high medicinal value, mainly cultivated for its fruits. Changing conditions had an urge plant breeder to practice on some avant-garde methods such as genetic engineering and mutation breeding, as an addition to traditional methods. Like in other crops there is a genetic bottle-neck due to traditional breeding studies. Genetic creating a mutation may lead to the possibility of creating a desired feature(s) which does not available in the nature or has been lost during the evolution. With the mutation practices, chromosomes are broken, or genes are changed (Novak and Brunner 1992).