Evaluation of Drought Tolerance Selection Indices Using Grain Yield in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Among abiotic stresses, drought is undoubtedly one of the most important ones, that have great impact on crop growth and productivity worldwide. Therefore, identifying of plants' performance against drought stress and estimating drought tolerance become a necessary part of the breeding phase. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of several indices that combine drought tolerance and high yield potential in chickpea. The trials were conducted under both stressed and no-stressed environments for two growing seasons (2015/2016-2016/2017) in Southeast Anatolia Region of Turkey. Varyans analysis results showed that there were significant differences among genotypes regarding Yp, Ys, MP, MRP, GMP, REI, STI, MISTIk 1, MISTIk 2, HM, YI, PI, ATI, SNPI and RDY. The genotypes FLIP09-51C, FLIP97-503C and FLIP06-97C had high yield under non-stressed condition, while the genotypes FLIP09-51C, FLIP06-97C and ‘Aksu’ displayed high amount under stressed condition. Thus, the genotypes FLIP09-51C and FLIP06-97C were found as good candidates for commercial recommendation in both conditions. Spearman rank correlation matrix showed that drought indices were significantly related to each other. The yields in stress and no-stress conditions (Yp and Ys) showed a significant and positive correlation with MP, MRP, GMP, REI, STI, MSTIK1, MSTIK2 and HM and showed a negative correlation with PI and RDY. As a result, it has been found that MISTIK2, DI, HM, STI and YI can be used as optimal indicators for screening drought-tolerant genotypes, while FLIP09-51C, FLIP06-97C, EN934 and ‘Aksu’ varieties have been the most tolerant genotypes in terms of these indices examined in study.