Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Feb;127(2):445-62.
doi: 10.1007/s00122-013-2230-6. Epub 2013 Dec 11.

Genetic dissection of drought tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Rajeev K Varshney  1 , Mahendar Thudi, Spurthi N Nayak, Pooran M Gaur, Junichi Kashiwagi, Lakshmanan Krishnamurthy, Deepa Jaganathan, Jahnavi Koppolu, Abhishek Bohra, Shailesh Tripathi, Abhishek Rathore, Aravind K Jukanti, Veera Jayalakshmi, Anilkumar Vemula, S J Singh, Mohammad Yasin, M S Sheshshayee, K P Viswanatha
Affiliations

Genetic dissection of drought tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Rajeev K Varshney et al. Theor Appl Genet. 2014 Feb.

Abstract

Analysis of phenotypic data for 20 drought tolerance traits in 1-7 seasons at 1-5 locations together with genetic mapping data for two mapping populations provided 9 QTL clusters of which one present on CaLG04 has a high potential to enhance drought tolerance in chickpea improvement. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second most important grain legume cultivated by resource poor farmers in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Drought is one of the major constraints leading up to 50% production losses in chickpea. In order to dissect the complex nature of drought tolerance and to use genomics tools for enhancing yield of chickpea under drought conditions, two mapping populations-ICCRIL03 (ICC 4958 × ICC 1882) and ICCRIL04 (ICC 283 × ICC 8261) segregating for drought tolerance-related root traits were phenotyped for a total of 20 drought component traits in 1-7 seasons at 1-5 locations in India. Individual genetic maps comprising 241 loci and 168 loci for ICCRIL03 and ICCRIL04, respectively, and a consensus genetic map comprising 352 loci were constructed ( http://cmap.icrisat.ac.in/cmap/sm/cp/varshney/). Analysis of extensive genotypic and precise phenotypic data revealed 45 robust main-effect QTLs (M-QTLs) explaining up to 58.20% phenotypic variation and 973 epistatic QTLs (E-QTLs) explaining up to 92.19% phenotypic variation for several target traits. Nine QTL clusters containing QTLs for several drought tolerance traits have been identified that can be targeted for molecular breeding. Among these clusters, one cluster harboring 48% robust M-QTLs for 12 traits and explaining about 58.20% phenotypic variation present on CaLG04 has been referred as "QTL-hotspot". This genomic region contains seven SSR markers (ICCM0249, NCPGR127, TAA170, NCPGR21, TR11, GA24 and STMS11). Introgression of this region into elite cultivars is expected to enhance drought tolerance in chickpea.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Consensus genetic and QTL map comprising 352 marker loci based on two intra-specific mapping populations. Markers are shown on the right side of the LG, while map distances are shown on the left side. The QTLs identified from the ICCRIL03 and ICCRIL04 populations are differentiated by different colors
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Consensus genetic and QTL map comprising 352 marker loci based on two intra-specific mapping populations. Markers are shown on the right side of the LG, while map distances are shown on the left side. The QTLs identified from the ICCRIL03 and ICCRIL04 populations are differentiated by different colors
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Comparison of “QTL-hotspot” genomic region harboring QTLs for various drought tolerance-related traits identified on CaLG04 of two intra-specific mapping populations with genomic region on consensus map. a QTLs identified based on ICCRIL03 (ICC 4958 × ICC 1882) mapping population. b CaLG04 of consensus genetic map. c QTLs identified based on ICCRIL04 (ICC 283 × ICC 8261) mapping population. QTLs common to traits in both mapping populations are highlighted in red
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abate T, Alene AD, Bergvinson D, Shiferaw B, Silim S, Orr A, Asfaw S (2012) Tropical grain legumes in Africa and south Asia: knowledge and opportunities. SAT eJournal 10:1–12. http://ejournal.icrisat.org/Volume10/IMPI/Research_development.pdf
    1. Ahmad F, Gaur PM, Croser J. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) In: Singh RJ, Jauhar PP, editors. Genetic resources, chromosome engineering, and crop improvement—Grain Legumes. Boca Raton: CRC Press; 2005. pp. 187–217.
    1. Blum A (2011) Plant breeding for water–limited environments, vol 14. Springer, New York, p 258
    1. Bohra A, Saxena RK, Gnanesh BN, Saxena KB, Byregowda M, Rathore A, KaviKishor PB, Cook D, Varshney RK. An intra-specific consensus genetic map of pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L) Millspaugh] derived from six mapping populations. Theor Appl Genet. 2012;125:1325–1338. doi: 10.1007/s00122-012-1916-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cuc LM, Mace E, Crouch J, Quang VD, Long TD, Varshney RK. Isolation and characterization of novel microsatellite markers and their application for diversity assessment in cultivated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) BMC Plant Biol. 2008;8:55. doi: 10.1186/1471-2229-8-55. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources