Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, PAU, Ludhiana-141004
National Symposium on Strategic Issues in Plant Pathological Research held at Department of Plant Pathology, CSK HP Krishi Vishvavidayalaya, Palampur on November 24–25, 2011
Botrytis Gray Mold (BGM) is a major limitation in chickpea production. High level of resistance to BGM is lacking in cultivated chickpea, however, some wild Cicer species have been identified as important sources of BGM resistance. A high level of resistance was observed in Cicer judaicum accessions 182, 185, ILWC 95, Cicer pinnatifidum accessions 188 and 212. Attempts have been made to exploit this novel source of BGM resistance through interspecific hybridization. A unique technique, developed at Pulses section (non destructive ‘cut twig’ method) was used for screening of elite wild donors as well as segregating populations derived from interspecific crosses. A set of 193 advanced lines derived from a interspecific cross between Cicer pinnatifidum 188 and ICCV 96030 was screened for BGM resistance in 2009–10 and 2010–11. Out of 193 lines, four lines, namely GL 29029, 29206, 29212 and 29081 were found to be highly resistant to BGM. The F2 populations from crosses between these BGM resistant derivative lines and susceptible cultivated parents viz. BG 256 and GL 769 have been developed. A set of 60 SSR markers, developed from Chickpea genome, were used to generate marker data on polymorphism between resistant derivative lines (GL 29029, 29206, 29212 and 29081), and susceptible cultivars BG 256 and GL 769. Six markers, viz., Ta2, Ta 110, Ta 139, CaSTMS 7, CaSTMS 24 and Tr29 were found to exhibit polymorphism between resistant and susceptible lines indicating possibility of their linkage with BGM resistance genes. Further, many such amplified fragments were also specific to BGM resistant wild parent C. pinnatifidum 188, the polymorphic markers distinguishing resistant and susceptible lines may be of significance in molecular tagging of BGM resistant genes in Chickpea.
