Cicer arietinum L. (chickpea) is one of the most significant legume crops domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. This study was aimed to characterize a diverse composite set of 384 Cicer genotypes using unlinked simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The genotypes grown under the temperate conditions of Western-Himalayas included cultivated and wild relatives from primary (Cicer reticulatum Ladiz.), secondary (Cicer echinospermum P.H. Davis) and tertiary (Cicer microphyllum Benth.) gene pools. The analysis of genotypic data of eight SSR markers from eight linkage groups led to the identification of 63 alleles, ranging from 2 to 6 with an average value of 3.7 alleles per locus. The polymorphic information content of SSR markers ranged from 0.46 to 0.79 with an average value of 0.77 and the gene diversity ranged from 0.47 to 0.79 with an average of 0.64. The clustering of genotypes in the form of dendrogram discriminated all 384 genotypes into four major clusters. The wild genotypes belonging to different gene pools got clustered uniformly in different clusters along with cultivated chickpea genotypes. The analysis of data also led to the selection of core set of 192

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Chickpea is one of the most important nutritious grain legume crops in the world. There is limited information available on micro- and macro-nutrients in chickpea. Therefore, an effort was made to evaluate a set of 40 chickpea genotypes belonging to all the gene pools including cultivated (Cicer arietinum) as well as wild, Cicer reticulatum from the primary gene pool, Cicer echinospermum from the secondary gene pool and Cicer microphyllum from the tertiary gene pools. Concentration in the seed of the micro- (Zn, Fe, Cu and Mn) and macro-nutrients (Ca, Mg and K) was studied. Substantial variation was observed among different gene pools for the concentration of all the nutrients. The cultivated chickpea exhibited higher seed Cu, Mn, Mg and Ca than wilds indicating positive domestication effect, whereas wild crop relatives were found to have higher levels than cultivated chickpeas for seed Zn, Fe and K concentrations. While comparing desi-type chickpeas with Kabulis, it was revealed that desi types possessed more Zn, Cu, Ca and Mg than Kabulis but reverse was true for seed Fe, Mn and K. Among different desi types (desi brown, desi green and desi black), desi brown types were generally associated with higher mineral nutrient levels. The present study led to the identification of most promising genotypes for different seed micro- and macro-nutrients. These promising lines may serve as genetic resources useful in gene discovery programmes and for alleviating malnutrition or hidden hunger in the developing world.