Architectural Analysis of Root System of Different Chickpea Accessions and Mapping Population

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is the third most consumed legume crop in the world. It is a major source of protein and, therefore, a very important food crop in developing countries. Due to several biotic and abiotic factors, annual crop yield is severely affected all over the world. To develop agricultural sustainability, chickpea is an important legume crop having excellent ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen biologically. A correlation between root system architecture and resistance to water stress has been found in several crop plants and breeding attempts have focused on obtaining cultivars with larger root systems. Development of root biomass and its architecture helps the plant to access water more efficiently from soil. The manipulation of root architecture could minimize the negative impact of a number of abiotic factors and can improve yield. Root System Architecture (RSA) is different between two species and also within the species. RSA is a highly plastic trait. Many methods are used for study of the root system. The development and architecture of roots hold potential for the use and manipulation of root characteristics to both increase yield and optimize agricultural land use. To understand the variation in chickpea root system architecture, we have studied about 41 different varieties of chickpea. Root system architecture (RSA) was analyzed for these varieties using different tools.
We have also studied the Root architecture of one mapping population (JGK3 X Himchana 1). Our main objective was concentrating on identification of genetic loci for root development in two chickpea genotypes with contrasting root traits.