Physiological and Biochemical Studies on Chickpea Genotypes under Water Deficit Stress in Laboratory and Field Conditions Kaur Narinder1,*, Kaur Satvir1, Kaur Jagmeet2, Gupta Anil K1, Kaur Sarbjit1, Kumar Arvind1, Singh Inderjit2 1Department of Biochemistry, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, India 2Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, India *Author for correspondence: Email: nkaur@rediffmail.com
Online published on 16 January, 2015. Abstract Chickpea genotypes, contrasting in drought response, (two drought tolerant checks, two drought susceptible checks and four water deficit stress tolerant) were grown in the field under irrigated and unirrigated conditions. The plant growth was least affected in PDG-3, PDG-4, GL-21107, GL-28228 under water deficit conditions. Reduction in leaf area index of sensitive genotypes was much higher (21–23%) as compared to GPF-2 and GL-21107. The decrease in net photosynthetic quantum in terms of Fv/Fm ratio was lesser in PDG-3, PDG-4, GL-21107, GL-28228 and GNG-1581 than in PBG-1, GPF-2 and PBG-5 under unirrigated conditions. Genotypes GL 28228 and GNG 1581 were better than the check tolerant genotypes in terms of reduction in Fv/m ratio. The higher activities of invertases in podwall of GL-28228 and GNG-1581 under unirrigated conditions might be better for the podwall development. Higher invertase and lower sucrose synthase activities during the initial stages of seed development under unirrigated conditions might be responsible for decreased seed size under these conditions. Sucrose synthase activity was not detected at 30 DAF in seeds resulting in shorter sink filling period under unirrigated conditions. The percent reduction in seed biomass was more in sensitive genotypes under unirrigated conditions. Higher proline content was observed in seeds of GL-21107, GNG-1581 and PDG-3 of unirrigated crop. Increase in radical scavenging activity in terms of DPPH was observed in mature seeds of GL-21107, GNG 1581 and PBG-5 under water deficit conditions. The present studies indicated that selection based on the seedling stage under water deficit conditions hold true under field conditions to a large extent. Top Keywords Chickpea, invertases, irrigated, rainfed, sucrose synthase, water deficit stress. Top |