Open AccessPhenotypic evaluation of genetic variability and selection of yield contributing traits in chickpea recombinant inbred line population under high temperature stress
Author(s) -
Ashutosh Kushwah,
Dharminder Bhatia,
Gurdial Singh,
Inderjit Singh,
Shayla Bindra,
Suruchi Vij,
Sarvjeet Singh
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
physiology and molecular biology of plants/physiology and molecular biology of plants
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.754
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 0971-5894
pISSN - 0974-0430
DOI - 10.1007/s12298-021-00977-5
Subject(s) - heritability , biology , population , path coefficient , abiotic component , agronomy , inbred strain , genetic variability , crop yield , horticulture , genetic variation , biomass (ecology) , veterinary medicine , genotype , path analysis (statistics) , medicine , mathematics , ecology , genetics , statistics , environmental health , gene
Heat is a major abiotic stress that drastically reduces chickpea yield. This study aimed to identify heat-responsive traits to sustain crop productivity by screening a recombinant inbred line (RILs) population at two locations in India (Ludhiana and Faridkot). The RIL population was derived from an inter-specific cross between heat-tolerant genotype GPF 2 ( C. arietinum L.) and heat sensitive accession ILWC 292 ( C. reticulatum ). The pooled analysis of variance showed highly significant differences for all the traits in RILs and most of the traits were significantly affected by heat stress at both locations. High values of genotypic coefficient of variation (19.52-38.53%), phenotypic coefficient of variation (20.29-39.85%), heritability (92.50-93.90%), and genetic advance as a percentage of mean (38.68-76.74%) have been observed for plant height, number of pods per plant, biomass, yield, and hundred seed weight across the heat stress environments. Association studies and principal component analysis showed a significant positive correlation of plant height, number of pods per plant, biomass, hundred seed weight, harvest index, relative leaf water content, and pollen viability with yield under both timely-sown and late-sown conditions. Path analysis revealed that biomass followed by harvest index was the major contributor to yield among the environments. Both step-wise and multiple regression analyses concluded that number of pods per plant, biomass and harvest index consistently showed high level of contribution to the total variation in yield under both timely-sown and late-sown conditions. Thus, the holistic approach of these analyses illustrated that the promising traits provide a framework for developing heat-tolerant cultivars in chickpea.