A Quantitative Genetics Approach to Drought Tolerance in Chickpea.

Drought stress particularly at the end of the growing season is a major constrain to chickpea (Cicer arietinum-L) production and yield stability in dry areas. The present increase in climatic variability may further exacerbate this problem. Identification of genomic regions contributing to drought resistance will help to develop better chickpea varieties faster through molecular marker assisted breeding. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) linked to phenology and production traits under irrigated and drought stress conditions were mapped by means of a recombinant inbred (RI) population derived from the cross ILC588 and ILC3279. RI population along with parental genotypes were evaluated for drought tolerance score (DTS; 1 = 100% pod setting: 9 = 100% plants killed; no pod setting), yield and yield components at two environments in 2008 and four environments in 2009. The environments varied in moisture stress gradients, and the long term average rainfall, 250 mm for Breda, Syria, 350 mm for Tel Hadya, Syria; and 450 mm for Terbol, Lebanon. QTL analyses for 2007-08 data detected two putative QTLs for DTS under normal conditions with 16% explained variation and one QTL with 26% variation under moisture stress condition (Table-1). Similarly, two putative QTLs were detected for grain yield per plant under moisture stress conditions while under rain-fed condition, TA-42 of LG6 showed association with yield per plant. QTL was detected on LG4 for days to flowering only under moisture stress condition in late planting. In this presentation the results from detail QTLs analyses across different environments including irrigated and non-irrigated conditions and its implications to improve drought tolerance in chickpea will be presented.