Comparing drought stress response in tolerant and sensitive chickpea varieties of Desi and Kabuli type

Four cultivars of chickpea (C. arietinum) were used in this study, two Desi (ICC 4958 and ICC 6098) cultivars and two Kabuli (Beja-1 and Amdoun-1) each one with a water stress tolerant and sensitive variety, inoculated with a Mesorhizobium strain. The effects of drought stress on plant growth and the response of genes related to metabolism were analysed by means of qRT-PCR at various time points of treatments. Nodules and root tissue was used for RNA extraction. We measured the expression of key genes involved by qRT-PCR on samples from stressed and control roots and nodules of a different cultivar using available Taqman assays. In addition phenotype characterisation was performed, such as Relative water content (RWC), quantification of biomass, evaluation ''in situ' of' acetylene reduction activity at the end of the vegetative stage, and nitrogenase activity. The expression analysis was done after 7 days of drought stress and after 10 days of drought stress. We studied genes implicated in the metabolism (glutamine synthase and AAT) or transport of proteins (peptide amino acid transporter like protein PAAT and proline rich protein PPP), sucrose synthase, malate dehydrogenase, sucrose phosphate synthase, sugar transporter) and Sucrose transporter, the antioxidant genes ascorbate peroxidase, Glutathione-S-transferase, Leghemoglobin, catalase, and two lipoxygenase genes.