Phenotypic evaluation of peach seedlings after seed exposure to gamma radiation

Irradiation of peach seeds with gamma rays is of scientific interest, as well as exposure of vegetative buds and pollen to this type of radiation.The purpose of research was to evaluate the morphological/physiological variation of peach seedlings after the exposure of seeds to gammaradiation at doses of 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 Gy. The seedlings from two crossing combinations: ‘Druzhba Narodov’ × ‘Babygold 5’ and ‘Lebedev’ × ‘Babygold 5’ served as research objects. The hybrids have been explored in relation to quantitative and qualitative features. The hybrids from the crossing ‘DruzhbaNarodov’ × ‘Babygold 5’, in the variants of seed exposure at the dose of 80 Gy, showed a significant increase in fruit weight and an improvement of the fruit appearance. Increasing the degree of fruit surface coloring up to 75% has been noted in irradiation variants of 20, 40 and 60 Gy, and a 50% increase was observed in the cases of 80 and 100 Gy. In all variants of irradiation an accelerated ripening, 11-17 days earlier than normal, was observed. Hybrids from the crossing ‘Lebedev’ × ‘Babygold 5’ irradiated at 20 Gy presented an enhanced fruit weight. The fruit taste properties have been improved in the case of 60 Gy. The tendency came to light to an accelerated ripening (about 14 days earlier than in the reference case) by irradiation with 40 Gy. In terms of qualitative features of irradiated plants, modified forms of the fruit were noted, as well as an increased degree of fruit surface coloration. From the hybrids studied, six promising forms with good economically valuable features were selected