Antioxidative and root attributes response of chickpea parents and crosses under drought stress

Chickpea parents with contrasting root characters and their direct and reciprocal crosses were evaluated under control and drought stress created by withholding irrigation using specially designed root boxes at 50 per cent flowering stage. The crosses involving Vijay and ICC 4958 having deep and prolific root system as a male parent exhibited higher accumulation of osmolytes (proline and glycine betaine) and with higher activities of antioxidative enzymes (SOD, APX, CAT and GPX) with less increase in lipid peroxidation rate and less decrease in nitrate reductase. Amongst the chickpea crosses, the cross of ICC 4958 x Vijay recorded higher increase in root length of 78.77 percent with less reduction in RLWC. The high estimates of broad sense heritability and genetic advance as percent mean was observed in F-2 generations of direct and reciprocal crosses for long root length.