GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.) RESPONSE TO NITROGEN FIXING BACTERIA VIA INDUCTION OF MUTATIONS

Abstract

This investigation was carried out in the Genetics Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University and the Gene Expression and Regulation Technology laboratory (GERT), Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Agriculture Research Center (ARC) Agriculture Research Center (ARC) and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) during the period from 2013 - 2017. The objectives of this study were to improve nodulation of chickpea cultivar "Ghab 5" using induction of mutation for enhancing nitrogen fixation. TILLING technique was used to create random induced point mutations using EMS treatment and identification of randomly induced point mutations in some individual genes involved in regulation of nodule number by Illumina DNA sequencing. The major findings of this study were as follows: 1- The ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) was used as a chemical mutagen for development of TLLING population in chickpea