Biotech Updates

Improving Chickpea with High Iron and Zinc Levels

December 3, 2014

Chickpea is one of the most consumed pulse crops in the world especially in developing countries. This crop offers wide array of proteins, carbohydrates, and micronutrients. Due to this need, developments involved in chickpea are focused on increasing its yield and improving its resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses. The need for developing varieties of chickpea with improved micronutrient concentrations has yet to be explored, and with this, researchers from the Crop Centre Development, University of Saskatchewan study this aspect.

The researchers used various genetic lines of chickpea, with a total of 94 accessions lines acquired in their institution. They observed for its variability and identify the SNP alleles involved in iron and zinc concentrations in the seeds.

Their findings revealed that the chickpea seed germplasm obtained a substantial variability in iron and zinc concentrations, and a total of eight SNP alleles associated with it. These results will be necessary in the potential application of molecular breeding in improving chickpea seed with better iron and zinc levels.

Full details of the study can be read at: http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full/10.1139/gen-2014-0108?src=recsys#.VH0hlTGUdZ8