Drought stress resistance indicators of chickpea varieties grown under deficit irrigation conditions

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the drought stress resistance of three chickpea cultivars (Inci, Hasanbey and Seçkin) grown under water deficit conditions and to discuss the use of yield, crop water stress index and chlorophyll index values as drought stress tolerance indicators in breeding studies. Three drought stress levels, (full irrigation = no stress - I100, deficit irrigation = moderate stress - I50, and no irrigation = severe stress - I0) were used as irrigation treatments. The highest seed yield (1,984 kg ha−1) in severe stress conditions was recorded for the Inci cultivar with a low crop water stress index (CWSI) (0.50) and high chlorophyll index (33.60 SPAD). The lowest seed yield (1,783.66 kg ha−1) in I0treatment was noted for the Seçkin cultivar which had a high CWSI (0.58) and low chlorophyll index (32.88 SPAD). The highest seed yield (2,566.33 kg ha−1) in full irrigation was recorded for the Inci cultivar which had a low CWSI (0.19) and high chlorophyll index (44.39 SPAD), while the lowest seed yield (2,328.00 kg ha−1) in I100 treatment was recorded for the Seçkin cultivar which had a high CWSI (0.26) and low chlorophyll index (42.12 SPAD). The seed yield of the Hasanbey cultivar in both severe stress (1,893 kg ha−1) and full irrigation (2,424.00 kg ha−1) conditions was between Inci and Seçkin varieties. The chlorophyll index and yield had a significant positive (r = 0.877) correlation, while a significant negative (r = −0.90) relationship was determined between CWSI and yield. Seed yield of the Inci cultivar in I0and I100treatments and water use efficiency revealed that the Inci cultivar is resistant to drought stress. Therefore, the Inci cultivar can be used in drought stress tolerance studies. In addition, the CWSI and chlorophyll index values can be employed as resistance indicators in chickpea breeding studies to determine the drought resistant chickpea cultivars.

Prioritization of Physio-Biochemical Selection Indices and Yield-Attributing Traits toward the Acquisition of Drought Tolerance in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

“…The chickpea has a narrow genetic variability, which largely affects chickpea improvement [ 31 ]. Low moisture stress affects the early vegetative growth stages of the chickpea plant [ 32 ], which ultimately affects yield [ 22 ]. Therefore, the physio-biochemical and agronomic performance of the selected chickpea genotypes was taken into consideration for the prioritization of drought-linked-selection indices and the identification of high-yielding chickpea genotypes with improved-vegetative-stage drought tolerance under drought stress.…”

“…Most researchers have found that leaves respond to drought stress by losing relative water content and water potential. It is believed that cultivars displaying a higher relative water content under drought stress are more resilient and yield more than others [ 32 , 54 ].…”