Genetic relationships among Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes based on the SSRs at the quantitative trait Loci for resistance to Ascochyta Blight

Breeding for resistance to ascochyta blight in chickpea has been challenged by several factors including the limited sources of good resistance. Characterization of a set of genotypes that may contain different genes for resistance may help breeders to develop better and more durable resistance compared to current cultivars. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic relationships of 37 chickpea germplasm accessions differing in reaction to ascochyta blight using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers linked to Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) for resistance. The results demonstrated that ILC72 and ILC3279, landraces from the former Soviet Union, had SSR alleles that were common among the kabuli breeding lines and cultivars. A lower SSR allele diversity was found on LG4 than on other regions. No correlation was found between the dendrogram derived using SSRs at the QTL regions and the SSRs derived from other parts of the genome. The clustering based on 127 alleles of 17 SSRs associated with the QTL for ascochyta blight resistance enabled us to differentiate three major groups within the current germplasm accessions. The first group was the desi germplasm originating from India and cultivars derived from it. The second group was a mix of desi genotypes originating from India and Greece, and kabuli breeding lines from ICARDA and the University of Saskatchewan. The third and largest group consisted of landraces originating mostly from the former Soviet Union and breeding lines/cultivars of the kabuli type. Several moderately resistance genotypes that are distantly related were identified. Disease evaluation on three test populations suggested that it is possible to enhance the level of resistance by crossing moderately resistant parents with distinct genetic backgrounds at the QTL for resistance to ascochyta blight.