Drought is the most important constraint affecting production
of chickpea and other crops as well. Quantitative traits like
drought tolerance are multigenic and their inheritance is difficult
to predict hence the need to explore more precise breeding
techniques like maker assisted selection. The aim of this study
was to introgress the identified root trait QTLs into Kenyan
adapted cultivar to enhance drought tolerance through marker
assisted backcrossing. Four varieties Chania Desi 1 (ICCV
97105), ICCV10, ICCV 92318, and Saina K1 (ICCV 95423) were
selected as a recurrent parents for improvement among ten
agronomically superior elite cultivars after exhibiting high polymorphism
with SSR markers. Five molecular markers (CaM1903,
CaM1502, TAA 170, NCPGR21 and GA11) were validated for use
in MABC deployed in this study. Crosses were made between
the four parents and ICC 4958 followed by marker screening of
the F1 seedling progenies for the QTL of interest. Identified true
heterozygotes were used as donors and backcrossed to the recurrent
parent to obtain BC1F1 seeds. The process was repeated
to obtain BC2F1 and finally BC3F1 with molecular marker identification
of seedlings carrying the QTL region at each step. Results
of evaluation in one trial site in Kenya semi-arid area (Koibatek
ATC) of MABC lines for the four parents ICCV10 (24 lines), ICCV
92318 (8lines), ICCV 97105 (12 lines) and Saina K1-ICCV 95423
(10 lines) showed that the best progenies with higher levels of
drought resistance and yield were ICCMABCD-21, 9, 20, 23, 15,
22, 5, 14, 16, 19 and 6 with yields > 2.5 tons/ha. The results indicated
that it is possible to transfer QTL that confers drought tolerance
using MABC. The best progenies are undergoing further
evaluation to validate the contribution of the introgressed QTL in
improving drought tolerance and yield
