Chhabra, A.K.Janghel, Dharmendra Kumar2022-05-072022-05-072020-09-30https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810184422In the present study entitled “Identification of salinity tolerant chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes using morpho-physiological and molecular markers,” conducted three experiments in 25 Desi chickpea genotypes along with 7 ICRISAT accessions under different labs and field conditions i.e. (1) Laboratory/ net house experiments: petri -dish experiment to study seed and seed germination indices in 0, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140 & 160 mM salinity levels of both NaCl and chloride dominated salts (2017 & 2018), between paper experiment to evaluate seed and seeding characteristics in 0, 40, 60 & 80 mM salinity levels of chloride dominated salt (2018) & net/ pot house experiment in 0, 40, 60, 80 & 100 mM salinity levels of chloride dominated salt (2018-19); (2) molecular characterization using 100 SSR markers (2018-19) and, (3) field experiments under natural existing salinity stress and normal field condition (2018-19). ANOVA showed that the 25 Desi chickpea genotypes differed significantly for all morpho-physiological traits studied for salinity tolerance, indicated the ample amount of genetic variability for salinity s tress tolerance had present in these material. The chickpea genotypes identified and screened across 0 to 120 mM salinity levels of chloride dominated salt for salinity tolerance were HC 3, HC 5, C 235, CSG 8962, ICCV 92944, ICCV 4958, H 07-120, H 09-96, H 08-18, RSG 931, ICC 12964, ICC 6306, ICC 6263, ICC 2242 and ICC 1915 at seed and seedling stage. Based on morpho-physiological traits across 0 to 80 mM salinity levels of chloride dominated salt, HC 3, H 07-120, H 08-18 and CSG 8962 had shown better mean performances, among them HC 3 genotype performed superior than CSG 8962 which need to be confirmed by further studies. The highest (0.516) discriminating power (D) displayed for SSR primers (ICCeM 0086, CaM 0015 and CaM 1469) in all 32 chickpea genotypes. The SSR molecular markers divided 32 chickpea genotypes into more clusters than few clusters by morpho - physiological clustering which indicated more informativeness of SSR markers than the morpho-physiological markers. So the molecular markers capable of detect narrow genetic base more efficiently. Based on both morpho-physiological and molecular genetic diversity analysis, the genotypes viz., HC 3, CSG 8962, H 07-120, H 08-18 and C 235 showed sufficient amount of genetic diversity for salinity tolerance wh ich may be used in chickpea breeding programmes for further improvement in salinity toleran.EnglishThesis