Ajinder KaurSharma, Urvashi2019-09-122019-09-122019http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810127488Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) poses a serious threat to chickpea production world-wide. cry1Ac gene is known to be most effective in controlling infestation of pod borer. The present investigation was undertaken to incorporate cry1Ac gene from T5 transgenic chickpea lines BS 100B-T5 and BS 100E-T5 into cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) varieties PBG 7 and L 552, respectively through crossing and recurrent backcrossing. The BC1F1 progenies [F1 (PBG 7 x BS 100B-T5) x PBG 7] and [F1 (L 552 x BS 100E-T5) x L 552] were tested for cry1Ac gene presence using gene specific primers. ELISA on the positive plants revealed Cry1Ac protein content between 10.57 to 11.72 µg/g leaf tissue. Therefore, on the basis of foreground selection and ELISA, positive BC1F1 plants were propagated to obtain BC1F2 populations, which were also subjected to foreground selection. A BC2F2 population of 83 plants was also grown by selfing [F1 (PBG 7 x BS 100E-T5) x PBG 7] x PBG 7. Foreground selection using cry1Ac specific primers on BC2F2 population resulted in ten (12.04 %) cry1Ac positive plants (1, 2, 8, 9, 12, 20, 26, 33, 39 and 44); their background selection using 12 polymorphic SSR markers revealed average recurrent parent genome restoration of 88.9 %. As a result, BC2F3 population comprising 128 plants was obtained from ten cry1Ac positive BC2F2 plants. Each BC2F3 row of positive plants was then tested using cry1Ac specific primers to identify BC2F2 plants homozygous for cry1Ac gene. The analysis revealed that three (30 %) BC2F2 plants 26, 39 and 44 were homozygous for cry1Ac gene, whereas remaining seven plants 1, 2, 8, 9, 12, 20 and 33 segregated in ratios of 6:1, 2.3:1, 1.25:1, 3:1, 1.6:1, 4:1 and 3:1, respectively.ennullThesis