Screening of Kabuli-type chickpea genotypes for salinity tolerance under field condition

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the important legume crops and Globally, after beans )Phaseolus spp(., chickpea is ranked as a second important legume crop (Roy et al., 2010). Chickpea is an important source of proteins for human consumption, especially in the developing countries where people cannot provide animal protein or vegetarian by choice (Zaccardelli et al., 2013). Chickpea plays an important role in the maintenance of soil fertility through nitrogen fixation (Roy et al., 2010). Plants are exposed to wide range of environmental stresses. In among, Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses causing severe impact on crop production worldwide(Rasool et al., 2012).chickpea is a salt sensitive pulse crop and its yield is seriously affected mainly by salts (Turner et al., 2013). Salinity stress in chickpea adversely affects several morphological features and physiological processes like reduction in growth and ion balance, water status, photosynthesis, increase in hydrogen peroxide, which causes lipid per oxidation and consequently membrane injury. Also proline and carbohydrates are accumulated in plant tissue (Flowers et al., 2010; Ashraf and Harris, 2004). This study is designed to determine the effect of salt stress on physiological and biochemical parameters in chickpea genotypes exhibiting differences in salinity tolerance. The results of this study could provide information on potential physiological and biochemical parameters and could also provide deeper intelligence into tolerance mechanisms than the stresses caused by salinity.

This experiment was conducted as split-plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications in 2018 at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran. Salinity with two levels of 0.5 and 8 dSm-1 (NaCl) was considered as main plot and chickpea genotype (17 Kabuli-type genotypes) as sub-plot. The characteristics such as soluble carbohydrates, proline, osmotic potential, MDA, DPPH, relative water content, MSI%, were evaluated in 50% of flowering. At the end of the growing season, crop was harvested and seed yield were determined.

The highest proline and carbohydrates content was observed in MCC65, MCC92 and MCC95 genotypes, and the lowest in MCC12 genotype. Result salinity stress caused increased 24, 19 and 19 % in the amount of osmotic potential, MDA and DPPH. Relative leaf water content and membrane stability was showen respectively 10 and 13 % reduction by use salinity stress. Survival percentage, number of branches and canopy height had reduction 6, 22 and 57. MCC65, MCC92 and MCC95 genotypes respectively by 0.183, 0.193 and 0.181 (Kg.m-2) had the highest seed yield and MCC98 and MCC298 had the lowest seed yield. The MCC65, MCC95 and MCC92 genotypes had superior traits, including performance in stress conditions compared to other genotypes, and on the other hand, the MCC98 and MCC298 genotypes had the lowest performance. Among 17 chickpea genotypes, the highest sodium content belonged to MCC95 genotype with 9.5 (mg.g.dw-1) weight and the lowest sodium MCC65 genotype with 5.8 (mg.g-1dw). MCC65 had the highest potassium in non-stress and MCC95 had the highest potassium in salinity stress.

The MCC65, MCC95 and MCC92 genotypes had superior traits, including performance in stress conditions compared to other genotypes, and on the other hand, the MCC98 and MCC298 genotypes had the lowest performance. Finally, further study in relation to the top three genotypes in salinity stress conditions is proposed to identify stress tolerance mechanisms as well as infrastructure as breeding programs.