Improvement in imidazolinone resistance in Cicer species by induced mutation

With 1 figure and 1 table Abstract Yield of the cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) can be doubled when the sowing time is shifted from spring to autumn in the Mediterranean region; however, weeds are one of the most important and unsolved problems in autumn-sown or irrigated chickpea. To solve weed problem, improvement in herbicide resistance has given priority for effective weed management by the farmers. This study deals with the selection of resistance to imidazolinone (IMI) using induced mutagenesis in three Cicer species including five macrosperma (ILC 8617, CA 2969, Sierra, Mexican white and Spanish), four microsperma (ICC 552, ICC 4951, ICC 4958 and ICC 6119) chickpeas as well as three accessions of annual wild species, one accession of C.similar to bijugum K.H. Rech. and two accessions of C.similar to reticulatum Ladiz., in the field and pot experiments. At the first time, one highly IMI-resistant mutant of C.similar to reticulatum was isolated after active ingredient of IMI on proposed dose was applied with increasing 10 times in field and 20 times in pot experiments. Bottleneck because of weeds on autumn-sown and irrigated chickpea will be solved using the new gene in plant breeding programmes.