Research Projects

Chickpea production is largely affected by both biotic and abiotic stresses (Gaur et al. 2019). It is affected by at least 172 pathogen taxa, which cause both root and foliar diseases (Pande et al. 2012). Among the root diseases, dry root rot (DRR) caused by Rhizoctonia bataticola is increasingly becoming a major threat to chickpea cultivation under rainfed conditions (Sharma et al. 2010, 2016; Ghosh et al. 2013). DRR is widespread in chickpea-growing regions causing a yield loss up to 100% (Gupta and Sharma 2015). There are limitations for disease management: A broad host range for DRR pathogen limits crop rotation options and being a soil borne pathogen, chemical control is not economically feasible. Drought and high-temperature stress aggravate DRR incidence in the field (Sinha et al. 2021, Chilakala et al. 2022). Since 85 % of the chickpea is cultivated under rainfed condition, the crop is highly amenable for DRR. Climate change is exacerbating erratic rainfall patterns, the severity and frequency of droughts and high-temperature stress, which elevates the risk of economic losses due to DRR. In case of chickpea a large number of molecular markers, expressed sequence tags (ESTs), dense genetic map and molecular markers associated with QTLs linked to several productive traits are available. Despite the proven inheritance of DRR resistance (Rao and Haware 1987; Talekar et al. 2017), identification of QTLs associated with resistance genes, no headway in DRR resistance breeding has been made. Only a single minor QTL (‘qDRR-8’) explaining low PVE (6.70%) with LOD scores 3.34 was identified (Karadi et al., 2021). In order to identify the genomic region/candidate genes for utilization in marker-assisted selection of DRR resistance in chickpea, there is a need to identify major QTL/genes with high phenotypic variance. The fine mapping of traits associated QTLs has now become simpler and easy to accomplish with advent of next generation sequencing (NGS) that demonstrated its efficacy by simultaneous discovery and genotyping of SNPs in mapping individuals at a genome-wide scale. We have identified a DRR resistant genotype; ICC 14395 (Desai et al 2017, Patil et al 2023). The RIL population developed using resistant genotype is presently in F7 generation. At F6 generation the mapping population was screened against DRR in sick pots (Patil et al 2023). The next step would be validating the results under field (sick plot) and sick pots over seasons. Using precise multi-season data from different phynotyping methods and NGS genotyping data to decipher the genomic region associated with DRR and development of PCR based molecular markers linked to DRR resistance. This will lead to a step forward in plant breeding programmes to develop DRR resistant high yielding cultivars in chickpea. Therefore the present study aims to fine map the QTLs for DRR and development of PCR based markers (CAPs) and validation of candidate gene based significant SNP markers.