Nutritional quality and health benefits of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.): a review.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important pulse crop grown and consumed all over the world, especially in the Afro-Asian countries. It is a good source of carbohydrates and protein, and protein quality is considered to be better than other pulses. Chickpea has significant amounts of all the essential amino acids except sulphur-containing amino acids, which can be complemented by adding cereals to the daily diet. Starch is the major storage carbohydrate followed by dietary fibre, oligosaccharides and simple sugars such as glucose and sucrose. Although lipids are present in low amounts, chickpea is rich in nutritionally important unsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic and oleic acids. ß-Sitosterol, campesterol and stigmasterol are important sterols present in chickpea oil. Ca, Mg, P and, especially, K are also present in chickpea seeds. Chickpea is a good source of important vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, folate and the vitamin A precursor ß-carotene. As with other pulses, chickpea seeds also contain anti-nutritional factors which can be reduced or eliminated by different cooking techniques. Chickpea has several potential health benefits, and, in combination with other pulses and cereals, it could have beneficial effects on some of the important human diseases such as CVD, type 2 diabetes, digestive diseases and some cancers. Overall, chickpea is an important pulse crop with a diverse array of potential nutritional and health benefits.

Phenotyping chickpeas and pigeonpeas for adaptation to drought.

The chickpea and pigeonpea are protein-rich grain legumes used for human consumption in many countries. Grain yield of these crops is low to moderate in the semi-arid tropics with large variation due to high GxE interaction. In the Indian subcontinent chickpea is grown in the post-rainy winter season on receding soil moisture, and in other countries during the cool and dry post winter or spring seasons. The pigeonpea is sown during rainy season which flowers and matures in post-rainy season. The rainy months are hot and humid with diurnal temperature varying between 25 and 35°C (maximum) and 20 and 25°C (minimum) with an erratic rainfall. The available soil water during post-rainy season is about 200-250 mm which is bare minimum to meet the normal evapotranspiration. Thus occurrence of drought is frequent and at varying degrees. To enhance productivity of these crops cultivars tolerant to drought need to be developed. ICRISAT conserves a large number of accessions of chickpea (>20,000) and pigeonpea (>15,000). However only a small proportion (<1%) has been used in crop improvement programs mainly due to non-availability of reliable information on traits of economic importance. To overcome this, core and mini core collections (10% of core, 1% of entire collection) have been developed. Using the mini core approach, trait-specific donor lines were identified for agronomic, quality, and stress related traits in both crops. Composite collections were developed both in chickpea (3000 accessions) and pigeonpea (1000 accessions), genotyped using SSR markers and genotype based reference sets of 300 accessions selected for each crop. Screening methods for different drought-tolerant traits such as early maturity (drought escape), large and deep root system, high water-use efficiency, smaller leaflets, reduced canopy temperature, carbon isotope discrimination, high leaf chlorophyll content (drought avoidance), and breeding strategies for improving drought tolerance have been discussed.

A gene for leaf necrosis in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).

Necrosis of leaves was observed in the glabrous mutant (ICC 15566) of desi chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). It was characterized by drying of leaflet margins to drying of complete leaflets of older leaves. The oldest leaves were the most affected and the intensity of necrosis decreased toward the apical meristem. A single recessive gene, designated nec, was found to govern the necrotic characteristic. The nec locus was linked to gl (glabrous shoots) with a map distance of 16 +/- 3 cM. The loci slv (simple leaves), mlv (multipinnate leaves), nlv (narrow leaflets), hg (prostrate growth habit), P (pink corolla), and shp (round seed shape) segregated independently of nec.

Isozyme polymorphism and phylogenetic interpretations in the genus Cicer L.

Allozyme variation among 50 accessions representing the cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and eight wild annual Cicer species was scored and used to assess genetic diversity and phylogeny. Sixteen enzyme systems revealed 22 putative and scorable loci of which 21 showed polymorphism. Variation was prevalent between species (Dst = 0.510) but not within species (Hs = 0.050). No variation for isozyme loci was detected in the cultivated chickpea accessions. Cicer reticulatum had the highest proportion of polymorphic loci (0.59) while the loci Adh-2 and Lap were the most polymorphic over all the species accessions. The phylogeny of annual Cicer species, as determined by allozyme data, generally corroborated those based on other characters in previous studies. Cicer arietinum, C. reticulatum and C. echinospermum formed one cluster, while C. pinnatifidum, C. bijugum and C. judaicum formed another cluster. Cicer chorassanicum was grouped with C. yamashitae, whereas C. cuneatum formed an independent group and showed the largest genetic distance from C. arietinum.

Genetic control and linkage relations of additional isozyme markers in chick-pea.

Allozyme polymorphisms of nine enzymes - aspartate aminotransferase (AAT), diaphorase (DIA), esterase (EST), formate dehydrogenase (FDH), ß-galactosidase (GAL), ß-glucosidase (GLU), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), malic enzyme (ME), and peroxidase (PRX) - were described in chick-pea (Cicer L.). Thirteen isozyme loci, Aat-c, Dia-4, Est-2, Est-4, Est-10, Fdh, Gal-2, Gal-3, Gal-4, Glu-3, Mdh-2, Me-2, and Prx-2, were genetically defined. Alleles of each of these isozyme loci expressed codominantly in heterozygotes and exhibited a codominant, single-locus segregation ratio in F2. The loci Est-2, Mdh-2, and Me-1 were expressed only in flower. Linkage relations were determined for these 13 and several previously defined isozyme loci. The following new genetic linkages were identified: Pgm-p (locus for plastid phosphoglucomutase) - Est-10; Ald-p1 (one of the duplicate loci for plastid aldolase) - Glu-3 - Gal-2 - Est-2,3; Gal-3 - Aco-m (locus for mitochondrial aconitase) - Prx-2,3; Gpi-c (locus for cytosolic glucosephosphate isomerase) - Fdh; and Est-4 - Me-1. This study provides further confirmation on the existence of several conserved linkage groups among Cicer, Pisum, and Lens.