Although chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) has high yield potential, its seed yield is often low and unstable due to the impact of abiotic stresses, such as drought and heat. As a result of global warming, both drought and heat are estimated to be major yield constraints between one-quarter and one-third per annum. In the present review, genomic-mediated breeding strategies to increase resilience against global warming. Exacerbated drought and heat stresses have been examined to understand the latest advancement happening for better management of these challenges. Resistance mechanisms for drought and heat stresses consist of (i) escape via earliness, (ii) avoidance via morphological traits such as better root traits, compound leaves, or multipinnate leaves and double-/multiple-podded traits, and (iii) tolerance via molecular and physiological traits, such as special tissue and cellular abilities. Both stresses in chickpeas are quantitatively governed by minor genes and are profoundly influenced by edaphic and other environmental conditions. High-yield genotypes have traditionally been screened for resistance to drought and heat stresses in the target selection environment under stress conditions or in the simulacrum mediums under controlled conditions. There are many drought- and heat-tolerant genotypes among domestic and wild Cicer chickpeas, especially in accessions of C. reticulatum Ladiz., C. echinospermum P.H. Davis, and C. turcicum Toker, J. Berger, and Gokturk. The delineation of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and genes allied to drought- and heat-related attributes have paved the way for designing stress-tolerant cultivars in chickpeas. Transgenic and “omics” technologies hold newer avenues for the basic understanding of background metabolic exchanges of QTLs/candidate genes for their further utilization. The overview of the effect of drought and heat stresses, its mechanisms/adaptive strategies, and markers linked to stress-related traits with their genetics and sources are pre-requisites for framing breeding programs of chickpeas with the intent of imparting drought tolerance. Ideotype chickpeas for resistance to drought and heat stresses were, therefore, developed directly using marker-aided selection over multiple locations. The current understanding of molecular breeding supported by functional genomics and omics technologies in developing drought- and heat-tolerant chickpea is discussed in this review.
22 November 2024 in International Journal of Seed Spices
A comprehensive assessment was undertaken to identify high-yielding Nigella sativa genotypes. Analysis of diverse germplasm revealed significant phenotypic variation in key agronomic traits, with seed number per capsule, days to maturity, and seed yield per plant exhibiting the broadest ranges. The yield performance of nigella variety AN-1 (1129.36 kg/ha) (10.20% higher than Ajmer Nigella-20) was found superior for seed yield and other yield attributing characters then check varieties AN-20 and Pant Krishna. Total oil content in AN-1 was recorded 19.70% (37.76 and 33.10 % higher than Ajmer Nigella-20 and Pant Krishna, respectively) whereas essential oil content was 0.03 %. The proposed variety of Ajmer Nigella-1 (AN–1) overall performance was significant. Out of 54 primers used in molecular analysis only 5 primers showed Polymorphism.