Water stress affected seed accumulation of non-reducing soluble sugars and germination performance of three chickpea cultivars

Water stress may alter the seed chemical composition and cause changes in the concentrations of non reducing soluble sugars in seeds and germination performance of chickpea. We evaluated the effect of water stress during chickpea seed development on seed (i) accumulation of non-reducing soluble sugars and (ii) vigour and germination.

Three chickpea cultivars (Desi-K, Saina-K and ICCV-K) were subjected to two water regimes (water stress- withholding irrigation after flowering and non-stressed- irrigation at 3-day intervals throughout the crop growth) in a completely randomized design with three replications. Seed size, viability, sugars content, solute leakage, germination percentage and mean germination time were determined from seeds harvested at physiological maturity.

Water stress increased the raffinose seed content of Saina-K and Desi-K, decreased the raffinose seed content in ICCVK, but had no effect on sucrose and stachyose content. Electrical conductivity (EC) increased with water stress in all cultivars, but the increase was greater in ICCV-K (57%) compared to Desi-K (18%) and Saina-K (12%). Non-stressed seeds had larger seed size, higher seed viability and germination percentage and lower EC and mean germination time than stressed seeds. Clearly, sufficient water at seed development stage is crucial for productivity of subsequent crops as it affects seed quality. However, we recommend further studies using a wide range of water stress treatments and chickpea cultivars with different seed size, seed color and seed coat texture.