Open AccessEvaluation of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes for tolerance to Frost in controlled environment
Author(s) -
Sintayehu Admas,
Teklehaimanot Haileselassie,
Kassahun Tesfaye,
Eleni Shiferaw,
K. Colton Flynn
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
sinet. an ethiopian journal of science/sinet
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2520-7997
pISSN - 0379-2897
DOI - 10.4314/sinet.v44i2.2
Subject(s) - frost (temperature) , biology , horticulture , agronomy , genotype , geography , meteorology , genetics , gene
The study aimed to evaluate the frost tolerance variability of Ethiopian chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) germplasm under controlled environment using growth chamber. A total of 72 genotypes were screened for frost tolerance using complete randomized design with two replications. The analysis of variance result indicated that there was a significant (P<0.01) difference amongst genotypes for plant height, number of foliage, number of primary branch, growth rate, and fresh biomass weight. Based on plant survival rate (SR), 31 (43.1%) genotypes scored above 0.8 values. Based on Freezing tolerance rate (FTR), 37(51.4%) and 31(43.1%) genotypes were rated at a score of 1 to 3 in freezing test 1 (T1) and freezing test 2 (T2), respectively. There was a strong negative correlation between fresh biomass yields with SR (-0.75** for T1 and -0.71** for T2 at p<0.01), while a strong positive correlation with FTR value (0.74** at p<0.01). Based on the combined result of FTR and SR scores, 26 genotypes were found to be frost-tolerant genotypes at a temperature level as low as -5oC at seedling stage. Based on our findings, Ethiopian chickpea germplasm has a genetic potential for frost-tolerance traits for use in breeding programs.