Variation for seed physical and hydration properties of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) mini core collection and their relevance to conservation and utilization

Abstract

AbstractChickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important grain legume nutritionally balanced for human consumption. The physical properties of chickpea seeds are important for processing and storage as well as for assessing seed quality and the hydration properties related to cooking quality. The chickpea mini core collection (211 accessions) and four control cultivars were evaluated for seed morphological (seed colour, shape, dots on seed coat and surface texture); physical (seed moisture content, 100-seed weight, seed coat content, length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter (GMD), surface area, sphericity, shape aspect, volume, bulk density, true density and porosity); and hydration traits (hydration capacity, hydration index, swelling capacity and swelling index). Highly significant differences were observed for all the seed traits in the mini core collection. Correlation coefficients indicated that accessions with high or more seed weight, GMD, sphericity, seed shape aspect, swelling capacity and swelling index would be useful for utilization in research. The results of this study have refined the seed traits of chickpea and resulted in identifying several desirable accessions in the mini core. Some of these accessions were previously identified as promising sources for important agronomic and nutritional traits and for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and will be useful sources to develop high-yielding cultivars with desirable seed physical and hydration quality.