Evaluation of Feezing Tolerance of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genotypes under Controlled Conditions

The present experiment was aimed to evaluate the freezing tolerance of two cold tolerant (MCC426 and MCC252) and a cold susceptible (MCC505) chickpea genotypes. The study was carried out in a split-plot factorial design with three replications. Factorial arrangement of genotype and acclimation (acclimation and non acclimation) were imposed as main plot and temperatures (0, -4, -8, -12, 16, -20ºC) as subplot. The effect of freezing temperature (FT) on plant survival was significantly different among genotypes (p<0.05). According to the average effects of acclimation and FT, the plant survival in MCC426 and MCC252 was 40% and 31% respectively more than in MCC505. Lethal temperature for 50% response (LT50) and temperature resulting in 50% lower dry matter (DMT50) in MCC426 were –10.8ºC and –8.4ºC, respectively and were lower than the other genotypes. Acclimation increased the freezing tolerance such that MCC426 tolerated up to –12ºC without any mortality, however, at this temperature, plant mortality rates in MCC252 and MCC505 were 25.7% and 67.7%, respectively. Plant regrowth was affected by the intensity of FT, such that plant dry weight (PDW) and stem height (SH) in –12ºC decreased about 63% and 50%, respectively, compared with non - frozen control plants. The most freezing damage was observed in MCC505, -12ºC treatment caused 90% decreases in PDW and SH, but at this temperature, PDW and SH in MCC425 decreased 55% and 49% and in MCC252, the reduction was about 60%and 54%, respectively. It seems that the use of controlled experiments would contribute to the evaluation of freezing tolerance and screening programs in chickpea germplasm for the estimation of LT50 and DMT50 .