Physiological and biochemical responses of wild and cultivated chickpea (Cicer spp.) germplasm to cold stress

This study was conducted to investigate the physiological and biochemical responses of wild and cultivated chickpea germplasm to cold stress, and to identify cold tolerant genotypes in field and controlled conditions. Twenty chickpea genotype including; 10 of cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes, eight wild chickpea (Cicer reticulatum) genotypes, and two cold-sensitive ILC 533 line and cold-tolerant (cv. Saral) controls were evaluated using randomized complete block design with three replications in the dry conditions of Saral agricultural research station, Kurdistan, Iran, in two cropping seasons (2019-20 and 2020-21). Agronomic and phenological traits were measured and recorded. Meanwhile, the chickpea genotypes were subjected to a gradual decrease in temperature in the growth chamber under controlled environment, and their biochemical and physiological traits were measured and recorded. Analysis variance showed that chickpea genotypes had significant differences for physiological traits such as peroxidase activity, electrolyte leakage and chlorophyll b content. Path analysis revealed that 100 seed weight traits followed by membrane stability and peroxidase activity had the most direct and positive effect on seed yield. The results of this experiment showed that high-yielding genotypes such as FLIP 11-86C (889.62 kg.ha-1) and FLIP 11-03C (795.72 kg ha-1) had cold tolerance rating score  of three and moderate electrolyte leakage index, and were selected as superior cold tolerant genotypes.