Developing of QTL Associated with Salinity Tolerance in Chickpeas

Soil salinity is one of the major abiotic stress which severely limits agricultural crop 
production throughout the world, and is increasing particularly in the irrigated agricultural areas 
as is the case in Egypt. Approximately, 33% of the irrigated land in Egypt is salt affected. Chickpea 
(Cicer arietinum L.) is an important grain legume that plays a significant role in the nutrition of the 
poor in the developing world. In this research, we used rich chickpea diversity panel collected from 
the GeneBank of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Area (ICARDA). 
This collection was selected by using the focused identification of germplasm strategy (FIGS). DNA 
of this core collection was extracted for molecular characterization using 16 SSR and 3 ISSR 
polymorphic markers. Association mapping was conducted by using Single-Locus-F test. The 
results indicated significant differences between the chickpea genotypes. Based on the average 
between the two locations, seven  tolerant genotypes IGs (70275, 70249, 70351, 70782, 8447, 
70330, 9434 and 70309) have been identified as tolerant genotypes. Association mapping indicated 
that SSR marker TAA170 was associated with salinity tolerance (P = 0.006201848). The results 
indicated that SSR marker TAA170 is close to the acidic endochitinase-like protein gene which is 
thought to be responsible for the salinity stress tolerance. This marker could be a candidate for 
marker assisted selection in chickpea.