Applications of Mutation Breeding

1. Induction of desirable mutant alleles which may not be available in the germplasm.
2. It is useful in improving specific characteristics of a well-adapted high yielding variety.
3. Mutagenesis has been successfully used to improve various quantitative characters including yield.
4. F1hybrids from intervarietal crosses may be treated with mutagens in order to increase genetic variability by inducing mutation and to facilitate recombination of linked genes.
5. Irradiation of interspecific (distant) hybrids has been done to produce translocations.