Publications of NIPGR Scientists

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Author: search.filters.author.Nayyar, HarshSubject: search.filters.subject.chickpea

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    Genotypic variability and trait associations for cold stress tolerance in cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) during the reproductive stage
    (PLOS, 2026) Padhiar, Deeksha; Kaur, Sarbjeet; Parida, Swarup K.; Jha, Uday C; Shama, Kamal Dev; Prasad, Pagadala Venkat Vara; Siddique, Kadambot H M; Nayyar, Harsh
    Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), a major winter legume in northern South Asia and Australia, frequently encounters low temperatures (0–15 °C) during reproduction, causing substantial yield losses. The present study involved screening two independent sets of 100 genotypes over consecutive winters to identify sources of reproductive-stage cold tolerance and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Following outdoor establishment, plants were exposed to controlled cold stress (15/7 °C day/night) during flowering and pod development (15 d) in walk-in growth chambers. Ten representative cold-tolerant (CT) and ten cold-sensitive (CS) genotypes were selected each year based on integrated performance across yield, physiological, biochemical, and reproductive traits for a detailed mechanistic analysis. Cold-sensitive genotypes exhibited severe dysfunction, characterized by high electrolyte leakage (50−59% above CT) and malondialdehyde (39−51% above CT), indicating membrane damage. Reduced chlorophyll content (21−23%), photosystem II efficiency (23−29%), and stomatal conductance (40−43%) impaired photosynthesis. Inadequate cryoprotectants (reduced by 25−58%) and antioxidants (reduced by 38−55%) caused oxidative damage. Reproductive collapse followed, with pollen viability and germination declining by 24−46%, stigma receptivity and ovule viability decreasing by 41−68%, and seed yields falling by 85−95%. Cold-tolerant genotypes-maintained homeostasis through integrated protection in terms of superior membrane stability, enhanced compatible solutes, and elevated antioxidant activities, which sustained photosynthesis and reproductive success, achieving better yields under cold stress. Principal component analysis revealed cold tolerance as an integrated system (PC1:72.6–81.3% variance), clearly separating the CT from the CS genotypes. Membrane stability, photosynthetic efficiency, and pollen viability emerged as diagnostic traits (r = 0.85–0.91 with yield, p < 0.001; heritability 70−99%). Tolerance operated independently of maturity (R² = 0.10–0.18), enabling donor identification across maturity classes. Twenty cold-tolerant genotypes were identified, spanning the early, medium, and late maturity groups, respectively. These findings establish a mechanistic understanding of reproductive-stage cold tolerance, provide vital selection markers, and identify genetic resources for breeding cold-resilient chickpea cultivars.
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    Nitric oxide-mediated modulation of reproductive resilience under cold stress in chickpea
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2025) Kaur, Sarbjeet; Padhiar, Deeksha; Jha, Uday Chand; Kumar, Sanjeev; Sharma, Kamal Dev; Parida, Swarup Kumar; Siddique, Kadambot H. M.; Prasad, P. V. Vara; Nayyar, Harsh
    Chickpeas are particularly sensitive to cold stress during the reproductive phase, which can significantly impair pod set and yield. This study examined the role of sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a nitric oxide (NO) donor, in mitigating cold-induced reproductive damage in cold-tolerant (CT) and cold-sensitive (CS) chickpea genotypes. After 100 days of outdoor growth, plants were subjected to cold stress (15/8°C day/night; 12 h photoperiod) for 21 days in walk-in growth chambers during the reproductive stage of development. Control plants were maintained at 25/15°C day/night temperature. SNP treatment (1 mM) was applied exogenously each time, first two days prior to stress onset and then at seven-day intervals (three applications total). Cold stress significantly lowered endogenous NO levels in leaves, anthers, and ovules, particularly in CS genotypes, thereby leading to reduced pollen viability and germination. SNP treatment restored NO and improved reproductive performance, with stronger responses in the CS than the CT genotype. For instance, pollen germination increased by 57.9% in CS versus 17.6% in CT, and pollen viability increased by 28.0% and 13.1%, respectively. Enhanced anther function resulted in a 157.2% increase in pod set and 62.0% higher seed yield in CS. SNP also improved physiological traits, including a 43.9% increase in cellular viability, 18.6% in stomatal conductance, and 41.9% in chlorophyll content in CS genotypes. Cryoprotectants (proline, trehalose, and sucrose) accumulated in anthers, reinforcing cold resilience, while oxidative stress was simultaneously alleviated through reduced malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and electrolyte leakage, together with the upregulation of both enzymatic (superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APx), and glutathione reductase (GR)) and non-enzymatic (ascorbic acid (ASC) and reduced glutathione (GSH)) components. Notably, CS genotypes showed more pronounced improvements from SNP application than CT genotypes, particularly in terms of reproductive success and yield-related traits. These findings highlight the potential of NO donors, such as SNP, to enhance cold tolerance in chickpeas, with promising implications for safeguarding productivity under low-temperature stress, especially in sensitive cultivars.
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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.
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    Response of physiological, reproductive function and yield traits in cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under heat stress
    (Frontiers Media S.A., 2022) Devi, Poonam; Jha, Uday Chand; Prakash, Vijay; Kumar, Sanjeev; Parida, Swarup K.; Paul, Pronob J.; Prasad, P. V. Vara; Sharma, Kamal Dev; Siddique, Kadambot H.M.; Nayyar, Harsh
    Under global climate change, high-temperature stress is becoming a major threat to crop yields, adversely affecting plant growth, and ultimately resulting in significant yield losses in various crops, including chickpea. Thus, identifying crop genotypes with increased heat stress (HS) tolerance is becoming a priority for chickpea research. Here, we assessed the response of seven physiological traits and four yield and yield-related traits in 39 chickpea genotypes grown in normal-sown and late-sown environments [to expose plants to HS (>32/20°C) at the reproductive stage] for two consecutive years (2017-2018 and 2018-2019). Significant genetic variability for the tested traits occurred under normal and HS conditions in both years. Based on the tested physiological parameters and yield-related traits, GNG2171, GNG1969, GNG1488, PantG186, CSJ515, RSG888, RSG945, RVG202, and GNG469 were identified as promising genotypes under HS. Further, ten heat-tolerant and ten heat-sensitive lines from the set of 39 genotypes were validated for their heat tolerance (32/20°C from flowering to maturity) in a controlled environment of a growth chamber. Of the ten heat-tolerant genotypes, GNG1969, GNG1488, PantG186, RSG888, CSJ315, and GNG1499 exhibited high heat tolerance evidenced by small reductions in pollen viability, pollen germination, and pod set %, high seed yield plant-1 and less damage to membranes, photosynthetic ability, leaf water status, and oxidative processes. In growth chamber, chlorophyll, photosynthetic efficiency, pollen germination, and pollen viability correlated strongly with yield traits. Thus, GNG1969, GNG1488, PantG186, RSG888, CSJ315, and GNG1499 genotypes could be used as candidate donors for transferring heat tolerance traits to high-yielding heat-sensitive varieties to develop heat-resilient chickpea cultivars.
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    Discerning molecular diversity and association mapping for phenological, physiological and yield traits under high temperature stress in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2021) Jha, Uday Chand; Jha, Rintu; Thakro, Virevol; Kumar, Anurag; Gupta, Sanjeev; Nayyar, Harsh; Basu, Parthasarathi; Parida, Swarup K.; Singh, Narendra Pratap
    High temperature (HT) stress is assuming serious production constraint for chickpea production worldwide. A collection of 182 diverse chickpea genotypes was assessed for genetic variation in 15 traits including phenological, physiological and yield-related traits under both normal sown (NS) and late sown (LS) conditions for two years 2017–2018 and 2018–2019, which revealed significant variation for all the traits. Association mapping of chickpea genotypes was also conducted with 120 simple sequence repeat markers distributed across all the chickpea chromosomes to discern the molecular diversity and to capture the significant marker-trait association (MTA). MTA analysis based on mixed linear model (MLM) revealed a total of 24 and 14 significant associations for various traits evaluated under NS conditions in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Similarly, a total of 17 and 34 significant associations for various traits were also recorded under LS conditions in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Notably, ICCM0297, NCPGR150, TAA160 and NCPGR156 markers showed significant MTA under both NS and LS conditions and GA11 exhibited significant MTA for filled pod% under late sown condition for both years. Thus, these markers could be useful for genomics-assisted breeding for developing heat-tolerant chickpea genotype.