RNA Sequencing to Identify Genes Associated with Drought Tolerance in Chickpea

Drought stress is a major constraint affecting chickpea production in most of the growing regions around the world; it is responsible for yield loses of up to 50%. Global chickpea consumption is predicted to increase from the current 8.6 million tons to 17 million tons by the end of this decade and drought stress remains a major challenge. The prolific rooting system observed in the drought tolerant genotypes compared to the drought susceptible genotypes is advantageous during late stages of plant development resulting in increased yield.  Here we used RNA-seq to identify gene expression changes in the chickpea roots at three stages of plant development. A randomized block design (three time points, two genotypes and two treatment conditions) was used to study the differential gene expression between treatments. Preliminary analysis revealed differential expression of 160 and 421 genes in drought tolerant and susceptible genotypes, respectively. In the susceptible genotype 413 genes were differentially expressed at 30 days, 231 at 50 days and 281 at 70 days. However, the tolerant genotype exhibited 24 genes differentially expressed at 30 days and 145 differentially expressed at 70 days. A Late Embryogenesis Abundant protein was differentially expressed at all time points in both genotypes suggesting its role as a potential candidate gene for conferring drought tolerance in chickpea.