Drought Stress and Rhizobium Nodules Interactions in chickpea

Abstract

Two hundred four genotypes of chickpea were assessed for various nodule characteristics and morphological traits under two environments, irrigated (well watered) and rain-fed (water stress). The field experiment was conducted in the dry seasons of 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 in two site Terbol, Kfardan in Lebanon with Alpha Lattice design and two replications. Three parameters (nodule biomass (m3), nodule dry weight (g), nodule fresh weight (g) were collected to assesse the Rhizobium nodulation, and four other traits (plant height (cm), grain yield (g), biological yield (g) and 100 seed weight (g) were measured for grain and morphological yield related traits. The genotypes were scored for drought tolerance by using a drought tolerance score (DTS 1-9 scale). Nine genotypes showed the best yield under both drought and well-watered condition (DTS<4). Among these genotypes, two (IG 71832 and IG 132032) were performed high nodulation under both environments. This result suggested these two genotypes will be help to improve the yield and nodulation under drought stress