EFFECT INDUCED BY TREATMENT WITH MUTAGENIC SUBSTANCES ON THE CONTENT OF ASSIMILATING PIGMENTS AND THE INTENSITY OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS IN PEANUTS (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Abstract

In the selection and improvement of economically important plants, a first step is to obtain a very diverse biological material and to induce an individual variability of wide amplitude. In practice, it has been shown that the tendency towards variability, manifested in any species, increases following intervention with various physical, chemical or biological factors, known as mutagenic factors. The results of the research justify the claim that the mutagenic substances used for experimentation influence the synthesis of assimilating pigments and thus the activity of photosynthesis differently depending on their concentrations in the earth hazelnuts. The purpose of the research was to observe the effects of chemical treatments in order to capture the differences of sensitivity of the species to the action of mutagenic substances, effects captured by the application of physiological methods. Regarding the chlorophyll pigment content of the varieties Tâmbureşti and Jelud, the highest values were recorded in the flowering phenophase, and the lowest values in the seeds maturation phenophase in peanuts. From the point of view of the ratio between chlorophyll a and b, in peanuts, the maximum is reached during the ripening period of the berries. The process of photosynthesis has reached the highest value in the flowering phenophase in plants obtained from treatments with dimethyl sulfate, then followed in descending order by plants obtained from seeds treated with sodium azide and ethyl metansulfonate.