QTL mapping for heat stress tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

Rising evidence of heat stress (HS) is appearing as one of the major challenges to crop performance including chickpea affecting plant growth and yield significantly. Unprecedented advancements in chickpea genomic resources have resulted in remarkable progress for genetic dissection of various complex traits including biotic and abiotic stresses. However, these genomic resources have been limitedly utilized for developing HS tolerance in chickpea. Thus, the present study was aimed to capture genetic variability and to identify HS relevant quantitative trait loci (QTL) using 206 F2 individuals developed from DCP 92-3 × ICCV 92944 cross. Wide range of genetic variability for seventeen traits related to phenological, physiological and breeding importance was captured from the given population under HS condition by growing them in late sown condition. A total of 78 SSR markers were used for genotyping of the given F2 individuals. Only 39 markers were fitted to Mendelian segregation and these were assigned to all linkage groups (LGs) except LG8, covering 859 cM of genome. QTL analysis revealed one QTL controlling primary branch number (PB) explaining 2% phenotypic variation (PV) on LG3 and another QTL related to chlorophyll content (CHL) on LG6 explaining 17.2% PV. In future, fine mapping of these QTL controlling genomic regions may enable uncovering the underlying candidate gene(s) contributing in HS tolerance. Thus, these genomic regions could be promisingly utilized for marker assisted breeding for developing heat tolerant chickpea genotype.

A Comprehensive Review on Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Climate Change Resilience

“…In this sense, the identification and introgression of QTLs associated with heat tolerance can accelerate the breeding process and facilitate combining different desired traits in one single genotype. The genetic architecture of heat stress tolerance has been extensively studied in chickpea [ 106 , 116 , 117 ]. For example, Paul et al [ 106 ] identified four major QTLs controlling pod and grain yield traits on LG5 and LG6 under heat stress, which explained above 50% of the phenotypic variation of those traits.…”

“…For example, Paul et al [ 106 ] identified four major QTLs controlling pod and grain yield traits on LG5 and LG6 under heat stress, which explained above 50% of the phenotypic variation of those traits. Moreover, Jha et al [ 117 ] reported a QTL associated with chlorophyll content on LG6 at ~100 cM, explaining 17.2% of the phenotypic variation under heat stress. A total of 37 major QTLs across the genome for 12 different traits related to heat tolerance were identified [ 117 ].…”

“…Moreover, Jha et al [ 117 ] reported a QTL associated with chlorophyll content on LG6 at ~100 cM, explaining 17.2% of the phenotypic variation under heat stress. A total of 37 major QTLs across the genome for 12 different traits related to heat tolerance were identified [ 117 ]. Finally, Kushwah et al [ 118 ] identified 13 stable QTLs for 7 different traits, including days to flowering.…”

High confidence QTLs and key genes identified using Meta-QTL analysis for enhancing heat tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

“…QTLs for number of filled pods, total number of seeds per plot, grain yield per plot and % pod setting were reported using RIL population developed from ICC 4567 (heat sensitive) × ICC 15614 (heat tolerant) (Paul et al, 2018b). Using SSR markers, QTLs for primary branch number and chlorophyll content were reported in F 2 population derived from DCP 92-3 × ICCV 92944 (Jha et al, 2019). Additionally, Kushwah et al (2021b) reported QTLs for heat tolerance using an inter-specific RIL population derived from the cross GPF 2 (heat tolerant) × ILWC 292 (heat sensitive).…”

Transferability of Simple Sequence Repeat Markers from other Members of Family Fabaceae to Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

“…Low polymorphism limits the use of SSR markers in chickpea genotyping (Amina et al, 2020;Nayak et al, 2010;Gaur et al, 2012;Gujaria et al, 2011;Choudhary et al, 2012;Suman et al, 2018) due to which scientific community resorted to single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) as an alternative to SSRs (Gaur et al, 2020). Since, SSR marker technology is within the reach of ordinary laboratories, it is highly desirable to develop new SSR markers for chickpea, so that genetic mapping of genes including quantitative trait loci (Jha et al, 2021) and marker assisted selection (Henkrar and Udupa, 2020) can become a routine procedure as is the case in crops like rice (Courtois et al, 2000).…”