Background: Chickpea (Cicer arietinumL.) is the second most widely grown pulse and drought (limiting water) is one of the major constraints leading to about 40–50% yield losses annually. Dehydration responsive element binding proteins (DREBs) are important plant transcription factors that regulate the expression of many stress-inducible genes and play a critical role in improving the abiotic stress tolerance. Transgenic chickpea lines harbouring transcription factor, Dehydration Responsive Element-Binding protein 1A fromArabidopsis thaliana(AtDREB1agene) driven by stress inducible promoterrd29awere developed, with the intent of enhancing drought tolerance in chickpea.Performance of the progenies of one transgenic event and control were assessed based on key physiological traits imparting drought tolerance such as plant water relation characteristics, chlorophyll retention, photosynthesis, membrane stability and water use efficiency under water stressed conditions.Results: Four transgenic chickpea lines harbouring stress inducibleAtDREB1awere generated with transformation efficiency of 0.1%. The integration, transmission and regulated expression were confirmed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Southern Blot hybridization and Reverse Transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), respectively. Transgenic chickpea lines exhibitedhigherrelative water content,longerchlorophyll retention capacity andhigherosmotic adjustment under severe drought stress (stress level 4), as compared to control. The enhanced drought tolerance in transgenic chickpea lines were also manifested by undeterred photosynthesis involving enhanced quantum yield of PSII, electron transport rate at saturated irradiance levels and maintaining higher relative water content in leaves under relatively severe soil water deficit. Further, lower values of carbon isotope discrimination in some transgenic chickpea lines indicated higher water use efficiency. Transgenic chickpea lines exhibiting better OA resulted in higher seed yield, with progressive increase in water stress, as compared to control.Conclusions: Based on precise phenotyping, involving non-invasive chlorophyll fluorescence imaging, carbon isotope discrimination, osmotic adjustment, higher chlorophyll retention and membrane stability index, it can be concluded thatAtDREB1atransgenic chickpea lines were better adapted to water deficit by modifying important physiological traits. The selected transgenic chickpea event would be a valuable resource that can be used in pre-breeding or directly in varietal development programs for enhanced drought tolerance under parched conditions.

The gram pod borer is a major pest of chickpea, accounting for average annual yield losses to the tune of 40–50%. VIP3Aa, a class of insecticidal protein with different receptor binding site in the insect’s midgut compared to Bt-crystal protein, offers an alternative protection strategy against Lepidopteran insects. Here, we report evaluation of genetically engineered chickpea lines harboring codon modified Vip3Aa (cmVip3Aa) against the Lepidopteran insect pest, gram pod borer. The synthetic codon modified, cmVip3Aa gene of 2,370 bp was sub-cloned in modified plant expression vector and used for direct transformation of embryonic axis explants of chickpea (cv. DCP 92–3), with transformation efficiency of 4.30%. Presence and transmission of transgene across two generations were confirmed by PCR and Southern blot analyses in the five selected transgenic chickpea lines. Real Time PCR analyses indicated variable levels of cmVip3Aa expression in the transgenic chickpea lines (average Cq values 15.01±0.86 to 19.32±0.10), which were absent in the non-transgenic counterpart. Detached leaf insect bioassay indicate larval mortality (up to 39.75%), reduced larval feeding (up to 82.91%) and reduced larval weight gain (up to 68.23%), compared to control lines. Evaluation of gene offers a platform to identify efficacious insecticidal gene that can be used for insect resistance management in chickpea.