“…Therefore, selection for chickpea lines with better SNF properties makes sense only in fungal-resistant genetic backgrounds . While efforts have been made to isolate high-nodulating chickpea genotypes (Rupela, 1994(Rupela, , 1997Khurana and Dudeja, 1996;Dudeja et al, 1997) and independently to select for higher resistance to various fungal pathogens (e.g., Pande et al, 2006;Rashid et al, 2014), no attention has been paid to identification of chickpea lines with superior symbiotic performance under conditions of low Zn availability. Once established, such lines could be recommended for regions of traditional chickpea production, most of which include Zn-deficient soils.…”