Abstract:
Drought sensitivity is considered as a major concer
n for chickpea (
C. arietinum
) seed
production. Determination of drought adaptation mec
hanisms is an essential constituent
of this crop breeding programs. With this purpose,
the present research was conducted to
distinguish the molecular basis of chickpea drought
tolerance using cDNA-AFLP
approach. The expression profile was compared betwe
en drought tolerant (ICCV2 and
FLIP9855C) and susceptible lines (ILC3279) of chick
pea under three drought treatments
including well-watered, intermediate, and severe st
ress; where soil water content was kept
at 85–90%
, 55–60%
, and 25–30%
of Field capacity, respectively. Totally, 295 tran
script-
derived fragments (TDFs) were visualized. Among the
differentially expressed TDFs, 72
TDFs were sequenced. Sequenced cDNAs were categoriz
ed in different functional groups
involved in macromolecules metabolism, cellular tra
nsport, signal transduction,
transcriptional regulation, cell division and energ
y production. Based on the results,
ribosomal protein S8, mitochondrial chaperone, prot
eases, hydrolases, UDP -glucuronic
acid decarboylase, 2-hydroxyisoflavanone dehydratas
e, NADPH dehydrogenase, chloride
channels, calmodulin, ABC transporter, histone deac
etylase and factors involved in
chloroplast division were among genes that were aff
ected by drought stress. Similarity
search in data base showed that cell wall elasticit
y, isoflavonoids, maintenance of
structure and function of proteins through increase
in expression of mitochondrial
chaperones, programed cell death, and remobilizatio
n of storage material from leaves to
seeds were among mechanisms that distinguished diff
erences between drought tolerant
and drought susceptible lines.
Keywords
: Drought stress, cDNA- amplified fragments length
polymorphism, Transcript
derived fragments (TDFs), Gene expression.
