Marker trait association for biological nitrogen fixation traits in an interspecific cross of chickpea (Cicer arietinum × Cicer reticulatum)

Sharon Nagpal; Asmita Sirari; Poonam Sharma; Satinder Singh; Kamalpreet Singh Mandahal; Harpreet Singh; Sarvjeet Singh

doi:10.1007/s12298-023-01335-3

Marker trait association for biological nitrogen fixation traits in an interspecific cross of chickpea (Cicer arietinum × Cicer reticulatum)

Physiol Mol Biol Plants. 2023 Jul;29(7):1005-1018. doi: 10.1007/s12298-023-01335-3. Epub 2023 Aug 19.

Authors

Sharon Nagpal¹, Asmita Sirari², Poonam Sharma², Satinder Singh², Kamalpreet Singh Mandahal², Harpreet Singh³, Sarvjeet Singh²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004 India.
² Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004 India.
³ Regional Research Station, Punjab Agricultural University, Gurdaspur, 143521 India.

PMID: 37649881
PMCID: PMC10462594 (available on 2024-07-01)
DOI: 10.1007/s12298-023-01335-3

Abstract

A set of 165 Recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from an interspecific cross of chickpea was used to identify QTLs for key biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) traits. The phenotyping of BNF and related traits was done at two different agroclimatic zones viz., Central plain zone (Ludhiana) and Sub-Mountainous undulating zone (Gurdaspur) for 2 consecutive rabi seasons (2018-2020). Wild parent C. reticulatum ILWC292 showed significantly high performance in terms of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) traits over the cultivated C. arietinum GPF-2. The triple interaction of genotypes × locations × years was significant (p 0.05) for all BNF traits in parental lines. Highly significant positive correlation was obtained between grain yield and key growth and symbiotic parameters at both the sites. Phenotypic analysis revealed nodule dry weight and leghaemoglobin content as key traits for BNF efficiency and contrasting DNA bulks were constituted on the basis of these traits. Out of 535 SSR markers, 139 exhibited polymorphism between the parental lines on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. A total of 30 SSR markers showed polymorphism between the higher and lower bulks for nodule dry weight and leghaemoglobin content. Out of these, 20 SSRs did not show any segregation distortion in RIL population as determined by chi square analysis (p < 0.05) and were used for quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis. Using QTL cartographer, markers- CAGM02697, CAGM09835, CAGM09777, CAGM09227, CAGM09021, CAGM08679 were found linked with QTLs for BNF. These markers can be validated further for identification of genes for BNF traits and marker assisted selection in chickpea. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report on identification of genomic regions associated with key BNF traits in chickpea across different agro-climatic zones.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-023-01335-3.

Keywords: Biological nitrogen fixation; Cicer arietinum; Cicer reticulatum; Leghaemoglobin; Nodulation; Quantitative Trait Loci; SSR.

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