Abstract
Key message 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.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00122-013-2230-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Climate change is a global phenomenon that has started to have adverse impact on agriculture
The two intra-specific mapping populations ICCRIL03 and ICCRIL04 were phenotyped for a total of 20 drought component traits in 1–7 seasons at 1–5 locations in India
Detailed analysis of phenotyping data on six root traits indicated that the phenotypic variation among recombinant inbred line (RIL) in the ICCRIL03 population was almost double for all root traits studied compared to earlier studies (Serraj et al 2004; Kashiwagi et al 2008), earlier studies deployed germplasm and RILs were studied in the present study
Summary
Climate change is a global phenomenon that has started to have adverse impact on agriculture. More hot days and heat waves are very likely to hit over most land areas In this context, drought remains as a big challenge while addressing the problem of food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition especially in the areas where people mainly depend on subsistence farming as a major source of their livelihood (Tuberosa 2012). Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is grown on low input marginal lands and represents an important component of the subsistence farming. It is the second most important grain legume globally cultivated on an area of 13.20 million hectare (Mha) with an annual production of 11.62 million tons (Mt; FAOSTAT 2011). With predicted climate change scenarios and continuous population explosion, there is a great need to develop high-yielding chickpea varieties with improved drought tolerance (Krishnamurthy et al 2013a)
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