Browsing by Author "Dixit, Girish P."

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    Delineation of genes for a major QTL governing heat stress tolerance in chickpea
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2024) Mohanty, Jitendra K.; Thakro, Virevol; Yadav, Antima; Nayyar, Harsh; Dixit, Girish P.; Agarwal, Pinky; Parida, Swarup K.; Jha, Uday Chand
    Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is a cool season grain legume experiencing severe yield loss during heat stress due to the intensifying climate changes and its associated gradual increase of mean temperature. Hence, understanding the genetic architecture regulating heat stress tolerance has emerged as an important trait to be addressed for enhancing yield and productivity of chickpea under heat stress. The present study is intended to identify the major genomic region(s) governing heat stress tolerance in chickpea. For this, an integrated genomics-assisted breeding strategy involving NGS-based high-resolution QTL-seq assay, QTL region-specifc association analysis and molecular haplotyping was deployed in a population of 206 mapping individuals and a diversity panel of 217 germplasm accessions of chickpea. This combinatorial strategy delineated a major 156.8 kb QTL genomic region, which was subsequently narrowed-down to a functional candidate gene CaHSFA5 and its natural alleles associated strongly with heat stress tolerance in chickpea. Superior natural alleles and haplotypes delineated from the CaHSFA5 gene have functional signifcance in regulating heat stress tolerance in chickpea. Histochemical staining, interaction studies along with diferential expression profling of CaHSFA5 and ROS scavenging genes suggest a cross talk between CaHSFA5 with ROS homeostasis pertaining to heat stress tolerance in chickpea. Heterologous gene expression followed by heat stress screening further validated the functional signifcance of CaHSFA5 for heat stress tolerance. The salient outcomes obtained here can have potential to accelerate multiple translational genomic analysis including marker-assisted breeding and gene editing in order to develop high-yielding heat stress tolerant chickpea varieties.
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    A next-generation combinatorial genomic strategy scans genomic loci governing heat stress tolerance in chickpea
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2025) Mohanty, Jitendra K.; Yadav, Antima; Narnoliya, Laxmi; Thakro, Virevol; Nayyar, Harsh; Dixit, Girish P.; Jha, Uday Chand; Prasad, P. V. Vara; Agarwal, Pinky; Parida, Swarup K.
    In the wake of rising earth temperature, chickpea crop production is haunted by the productivity crisis. Chickpea, a cool season legume manifests tolerance in several agro-physiological level, which is complex quantitative in nature, and regulated by multiple genes and genetic networks. Understanding the molecular genetic basis of this tolerance and identifying key regulators can leverage chickpea breeding against heat stress. This study employed a genomics-assisted breeding strategy utilizing multi-locus GWAS to identify 10 key genomic regions linked to traits contributing to heat stress tolerance in chickpea. These loci subsequently delineated few key candidates and hub regulatory genes, such as RAD23b, CIPK25, AAE19, CK1 and WRKY40, through integrated genomics, transcriptomics and interactive analyses. The differential transcript accumulation of these identified candidates in contrasting chickpea accessions suggests their potential role in heat stress tolerance. Differential ROS accumulation along with their scavengers' transcript abundance aligning with the expression of identified candidates in the contrasting chickpea accessions persuade their regulatory significance. Additionally, their functional significance is ascertained by heterologous expression and subsequent heat stress screening. The high confidence genomic loci and the superior genes and natural alleles delineated here has great potential for swift genomic interventions to enhance heat resilience and yield stability in chickpea.