Genetics of lodging resistance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L)

Lodging (stem bending) is a serious problem causing severe yield reduction, poor grain filling, lower harvest index and deterioration in grain quality of chickpea in environments characterized by favorable temperatures and soil moisture conditions. Breeding for lodging resistance is also required to improving adaptation to better agronomy for achieving a breakthrough in its productivity and stability of production. However, no information is available on genetics of lodging resistance in chickpea. The objectives were to (i) characterize the newly identified lodging resistant germplasm FLIP07-183C for important plant characteristics and (ii) study the inheritance of lodging resistance in an inter-varietal cross between lodging susceptible high yielding desi cultivar Pusa 362 and the newly identified lodging resistant kabuli germplasm FLIP07-183C. FLIP07-183C was a tall, erect, late flowering genotype with semi-determinate stem growth habit and large seeds. It contained higher lignin content than the lodging susceptible cultivar, Pusa 362. Lodging resistance was found to be dominant over susceptibility. The segregation patterns in F2 and F3 of the cross Pusa 362 × FLIP07-183C showed that two dominant non-allelic genes with duplicate gene action controlled lodging resistance in FLIP07-183C. The two non-allelic duplicate dominant genes for lodging resistance in FLIP07-183C are designated as Sb1/sb1 and Sb2/sb2. The homozygous recessive for both alleles (sb1sb1sb2sb2) produced a lodging susceptible phenotype. The utilization of genes identified for lodging resistance has the major impact on chickpea breeding for better adaptation to cool climate, high fertility and irrigated environments.