Effect of sodium azide on Bambara groundnut (<i>Vigna subterranean</i> (L.) verdc.) as revealed by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (sds-page)

Abstract

This study investigated the mutagenic effects of Sodium Azide (NaN₃) on the agromorphological and protein content of eight Bambara groundnut genotypes. The seeds of six genotypes; TVSu-86, TVSu-91, TVSu-186, TVSu-235, TVSu-242, TVSu-350 were collected from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and two landraces from Abia State and Enugu State North East, Nigeria local markets. The seeds were treated with five concentrations: 0.00%(control), 0.01%, 0.03%, 0.05% and 0.07% of NaN3 after pre-soaking for 6hrs in distilled water and sown in pots arranged in a Complete Randomized Design with three replicates. There was reduction in germination percentage and growth characters as concentrations of NaN₃ increases. Early  flowering was recorded at 37 days mutated with 0.07% of NaN₃ compared to control which flowered late at 42 days. NaN₃ (0.07%) caused lethal effect on Abia and Enugu landraces. There was no significant (P>0.05)  difference in yield traits among mutants and control. Mutant seeds significantly (P<0.05) increased protein content (19.12%) at 0.05% of NaN₃ compared to control (18.5%). The number of seeds (0.99), seed yield (0.89) and pod yield (0.96) strongly correlated with seeds per pod (0.85). The SDS-PAGE revealed the presence of polypeptide bands in mutants compared to control. TVSu-235 and TVSu-350 genotypes had higher tolerance and yield traits to 0.01% concentration of NaN₃, thus could be further improved in subsequent breeding.