Improvement of soybean, peanut and mungbean by the use of nuclear techniques

Pulses are an important part of the diet in Indonesia. Their production is insufficient. Rust disease is one of the obstacles towards higher yields. Seeds of two soybean varieties, one peanut variety and two mungbean varieties were irradiated with doses causing 15-30% seedling height reduction. M4 and M5 generation of irradiated soybean were screened for rust resistance and it appears that irradiated populations contain a few more plants with resistant or moderately resistant reaction. Irradiation of mungbeans with doses of 45-72 krad was rather unsuccessful in terms of obtaining useful mutations. Therefore M4 seeds were irradiated again with similar doses. (author)