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. 2023 Oct 30;12(21):3726.
doi: 10.3390/plants12213726.

Impact of Terminal Heat and Combined Heat-Drought Stress on Plant Growth, Yield, Grain Size, and Nutritional Quality in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Aouatif Benali  1   2   3 , Noureddine El Haddad  3 , Somanagouda B Patil  3 , Aakash Goyal  3 , Kamal Hejjaoui  4 , Adil El Baouchi  4 , Fatima Gaboun  2 , Mouna Taghouti  2 , Mohammed Ouhssine  1 , Shiv Kumar  5
Affiliations

Impact of Terminal Heat and Combined Heat-Drought Stress on Plant Growth, Yield, Grain Size, and Nutritional Quality in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Aouatif Benali et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Chickpea is the third most consumed pulse and provides a kit of essential nutrients for an exponential population. High temperatures and drought stress are two major abiotic stresses that cause serious effects on chickpea growth and development. The comprehension of abiotic stresses' impact on chickpea productivity and nutritional quality will permit the selection of promising genotypes. The current study aimed to assess the impact of heat and drought stresses on plant growth, grain yield and its components, grain size, and nutritional quality in chickpea. For this purpose, 43 international chickpea genotypes were evaluated under normal, heat, and combined heat-drought stress conditions. The findings revealed a significant decrease of over 50% in plant height, biological yield, and seed yield under both stress conditions. Grain size and hundred-seed weight were the most heritable traits under normal, heat, and combined heat-drought stress. Proteins were accumulated under both stresses, evolving from 20.26% for normal conditions to 22.19% for heat stress and to 21.94% for combined heat-drought stress. For minerals, significant variation between treatments was observed for Mn, Mg, and Na. Our results also showed a significant impact of genotype and genotype-environment interaction factors only on K content. Using selection indices, 22 genotypes were identified as highly tolerant to the combined heat-drought stress, while eleven genotypes were heat-tolerant. Mineral profile analysis according to the contrasting tolerance clusters revealed decreased potassium content in susceptible genotypes, indicating genetic potential in the studied chickpea collection, ensuring tolerance to both stresses while maintaining good grain quality.

Keywords: chickpea; drought stress; heat stress; micronutrient deficiency; nutritional quality; stress selection indices.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Classification of chickpea genotypes under heat stress conditions (a) and combined heat-drought stress conditions (b) using the different stress indices (Red: cluster 1, Green: cluster 2, Blue: cluster 3, Orange: cluster 4).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Biplot of the first two principal components PC1 and PC2 of genotypes and stress indices under heat stress conditions at Marchouch during 2016–2017.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Biplot of the first two principal components PC1 and PC2 of genotypes and stress indices under combined heat-drought stress conditions at Marchouch during 2016–2017.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Max/min temperature and precipitation recorded during the study period at Marchouch, Morocco.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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