Mutation breeding in chickpea

Chickpea is an important food legume in Turkey. Turkey is one of the most important gene centers in the world for legumes. The most widely known characteristic of chickpea is that it is an important vegetable protein source used in human and animal nutrition. However, the dry grains of chickpea, has 2-3 times more protein than our traditional food of wheat. In addition, cheakpea is also energy source because of its high carbohydrate content. It is very rich in some vitamin and mineral basis. In the plant breeding, mutation induction has become an effective way of supplementing existing germplasm and improving cultivars. Many successful examples of mutation induction have proved that mutation breeding is an effective and important approach to food legume improvement. The induced mutation technique in chickpea has proved successful and good results have been attained. Realizing the potential of induced mutations, a mutation breeding programme was initiated at the Nuclear Agriculture Section of the Saraykoey Nuclear Research and Training Center in 1994. The purpose of the study was to obtain high yielding chickpea mutants with large seeds, good cooking quality and high protein content. Beside this some characters such as higher adaptation ability, tolerant to cold and drought, increased machinery harvest type, higher yield, resistant to diseases especially to antracnose and pest were investigated too. Parents varieties were ILC-482, AK-7114 and AKCIN-91 (9 % seed moisture content and germination percentage 98 %) in these experiments. The irradiation doses were 0 (control), 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 500 ve 600 Gy for greenhouse experiments and 0 (control), 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 ve 400 Gy for field experiments, respectively. One thousand seeds for per treatment were sown in the field for the M1. At maturity, 3500 single plants were harvested and 20 seeds were taken from each M1 plant and planted in the following season. During plant growth, mutants of the desired traits [earliness, yield per plant, first pot height and resistance to Ascochyta blight (Ascochyta rabiei)] were identified an isolated. 2520 desirable M2 mutants were selected and grown in progeny rows as the M3 generation. The protein contents of seeds were analyzed for the M3-M4 seeds. In M5-M7 generation, preliminary yield trials had been conducted and based on field observations, quality criteria (grain size, grain type, cooking and protein) analyses, and later 12 mutant lines were selected. The mutants and their controls were evaluated at two locations (Saraykoey and Haymana) in Central Anatolia for 2 years (M8, M9) for determination of yield performance using randomized complete block design with 3 replications. All the data were analysed statistically. As a result of these experiments, two promising mutant lines were chosen and given to the Seed Registration and Certification Center for official registration These two promising mutants were tested at five different locations of Turkey, in 2004 and 2005 years. After 2 years of registration experiments one of outstanding mutants was officially released as mutant chickpea variety under the name TAEK-SAGEL, in 2006. Some basic characteristics of this mutant are; earliness (95-100 day), high yield capacity (180-220 kg/da), high seed protein (22-25 %), first pot height (20-25 cm), 100 seeds weight (42-48 g), cooking time (35-40 min) and resistance to Ascochyta blight. (Includes 31 tables and 9 figures)