Disease Resistance in Chickpea

Abstract

Chickpea is a grain legume with valuable nutritional characteristics. It is a basic aliment in Asian countries such as India and Pakistan as well as a traditional ingredient in Mediterranean diets. Biotic stresses such as ascochyta blight (AB) and fusarium wilt (Foc), together with other diseases, such as botrytis gray mold (BGM) and rust, are major constraints on stable chickpea production. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is a tool that is significantly augmenting the efficacy and efficiency of chickpea breeding programs. This chapter reviews the current status and future potential of genomic tools for chickpea breeding aimed at countering biotic stresses. It also provides an overview of causal agents, host resistance inheritance, gene or quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping, and genetic resources. An overview of the progress in introgression of resistance genes to cultivated chickpea as well as integrated disease management (IDM) is also provided.