Estimation of genetic diversity using seed storage protein (SSP) profiling in wild and cultivated species of Cicer L.

Background: The narrow genetic diversity of chickpea is a serious impediment to modern cultivar creation. Seed storage proteins (SSPs) are stable and have minimal or no degradation when subjected to isolation and SDS-PAGE.

Methods And Results: We have characterized SSPs of 436 chickpea genotypes, belonging to nine annual Cicer species, originated from 47 countries by SDS-PAGE and determined the extent of genetic diversity in chickpea through clustering.

A Comparative Study for Assessing the Drought-Tolerance of Chickpea Under Varying Natural Growth Environments.

This study was planned with the purpose of evaluating the drought tolerance of advanced breeding lines of chickpea in natural field conditions. Two methods were employed to impose field conditions; the first: simulating drought stress by growing chickpea genotypes at five rainfed areas, with Faisalabad as the non-stressed control environment; and the second: planting chickpea genotypes in spring to simulate a drought stress environment, with winter-sowing serving as the non-stressed environment. Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and generalized linear models (GLM) models were both found to be equally effective in extracting main effects in the rainfed experiment.