Drought is the major constraint causing considerable yield
reduction in chickpea. Roots play a critical role in enhancing
drought tolerance. The main objective of the study was to introgress
drought tolerant root traits into Kenyan chickpea varieties
through marker assisted breeding (MABC). Eight simple
sequence repeat (SSR) markers, linked to quantitative trait loci
(QTL) for root and yield traits, were used to screen the parents
at ICRISAT, India. In addition, 1144 single nucleotide polymorphic
markers (SNPs) were also used in genotyping these
parents at Legume Genomics Center, United Kingdom. Crosses
were made between two selected varieties, ICCV 92944 (Chania
Desi II) and ICCV 00108 (LDT 068) and ‘QTL-hotspot’ donor
parent ICC 4958 that has extensive rooting system. Polymor-
In the face of increasing water scarcity, breeding for higher transpiration
efficiency (TE), that is, the biomass produced per unit
of water transpired, has become crucial. This could be achieved
by reducing plant transpiration through a better closure of the
stomatal pores at the leaf surface. However, this strategy generally
also lowers growth, as stomatal opening is necessary for
the capture of atmospheric CO2 that feeds daytime photosynthesis.
Here, we considered the reduction in transpiration rate
at night (En), when photosynthesis is inactive, as a possible
strategy to limit water use without altering growth. We carried
out a genetic analysis for En and TE in grapevine, a major crop
in drought-prone areas. A 3 year experiment was conducted on
the F1 progeny from a cross between Syrah and Grenache cultiphic
SSR and SNP markers were used to select progenies with
root QTL at F1, BC1F1 and BC2F1 that were later advanced to
BC2F3. The BC2F3 populations were evaluated for root traits
at Egerton University in randomized complete block design
with two replications in pot experiment. The BC2F3 families
were significantly different for root dry weight (RDW), shoot
dry weight (SDW), total plant dry weight (PDW) and root to
shoot dry weight (R/S) ratio (R/S) for Chania Desi II x ICC 4958
and R/S for LDT 068 x ICC 4958. These lineshad significantly
improved root traits compared the recurrent parents. MABC
is aneffective and efficient method of introgressing complex
drought tolerant traits which leads to improvement in yield especially
under drought conditions
