Differences in adaptation to water stress in stress sensitive and resistant varieties of Kabuli and Desi type chickpea.

Drought is an important environmental stress limiting crops yield, severely affecting agriculture due to climate changes. The mechanisms associated with different response to water stress are not well understood at the molecular level. Several studies have attempted to evaluate the differences in response to drought stress in chickpea varieties, each study focusing for a different time of stress challenge, therefore the periods of analysis are not overlapping. In this review we will focus on the water and osmotic stress response in chickpea varieties, described in the literature. In addition, we describe the studies performed using the Desi type ICC 4958 (tolerant) and ICC 6098 (susceptible), and the Kabuli type Beja 1 (tolerant) and Amdoun 1 (susceptible) varieties, and the plant responses to osmotic stress and water stress for 7 and 10 days. We monitored physiological parameters and gene expression changes in plant nodules with a focus on two lipoxygenase genes coding for key enzymes in the jasmonic acid biosynthesis pathway. Differences in expression in nodules and activation of specific transcripts were found between Desi and Kabuli plants and between tolerant and susceptible cultivars. These findings may correlate with the higher ability of Desi type chickpea to tolerate water stress.