~ 229 ~ International Journal of Chemical Studies 2017; 5(5): 229-237 P-ISSN: 2349–8528 E-ISSN: 2321–4902 IJCS 2017; 5(5): 229-237 © 2017 IJCS Received: 01-07-2017 Accepted: 02-08-2017 Rajat Chaudhary Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut-250110 (U.P.), India Mukesh Kumar Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, (U.P.), India RS Sengar Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, (U.P.), India Pushpendra kumar Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, (U.P.), India SK Singh Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, (U.P.), India Yogesh kumar Department of Soil Science, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, (U.P.), India Correspondence Rajat Chaudhary Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut-250110 (U.P.), India Effect of Salinity stress on Photosynthesis and expression of salt tolerant genes in Chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) Rajat Chaudhary, Mukesh Kumar, RS Sengar, Pushpendra Kumar, SK Singh and Yogesh Kumar Abstract Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a salt sensitive leguminous crop species, but some genetic variation for salinity tolerance exists. The experiment was conducted in pots, in which fifteen genotypes of chickpea were subjected to 0, 40 or 60 mM NaCl added to the soil to determine the variation in salt tolerance. Photosynthetic rate were measured in the reproductive of both saline and non- saline condition. The results showed photosynthesis rate decreased under both the salinity levels. The genotypes CSG 8962, L 550 and JG 16 are found the most tolerant among studied genotypes under both salinity levels (S1 and S2). The HKT1 gene was expressed higher in susceptible genotype (K 850) in leaves and roots under both the salinity levels. P5CS gene was expressed higher in susceptible genotype (K 850) in leaves tissue. In root tissue, no expression was observed. LEA2 gene was detectable under the water deficit condition in leaves and roots under both the salinity levels. The transcription factor WRKY and NAC were expressed higher in leaves and roots in tolerant genotype CSG 8962. The genotype CSG 8962 showed high levels of tolerance compared for the other cultivars. The results suggest that chickpea cultivars tolerant of salinity have better growth potential than do sensitive ones. Keywords: salinity, photosynthesis, salt tolerant index, high-affinity potassium transporter, NACL, and salt tolerance indices. Introduction Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a legume crop and belongs to the family Fabaceae. It is self- pollinated, diploid (2n=2x=16) with a genome size of 740 Mbp. It is an annual crop that can complete its life cycle in 90 to 180 days depending on the prevailing meteorological conditions. It is the second most important legume crop after dry beans (Varshney et al., 2012) [31] . The genus Cicer originated in South-Eastern Turkey and spread to other parts of the world. Chickpea is grown in 54 countries with nearly 90% of its area covered in developing countries (Gaur et al., 2012) [10] . Almost 80% of global chickpea is produced in Southern and South- Eastern Asia. Chickpea production is 13.10 million tonnes from 13.50 million ha. the area with an average productivity of 971 kg/ha worldwide. India has first ranked in the world, contributing 68% of the global chickpea production. In India pulse crops are cultivated in 9.92 million ha, producing a total of 9.88 million tonnes with an average yield of 995.96 kg/ha (FAOSTAT, 2014) [8] . Chickpea seeds provide a source of dietary protein (21%) and carbohydrates (40%) for humans and animal feed in some developing countries (Flowers et al., 2010; Gaur et al., 2012) [9, 10] . Moreover, chickpea not only improves soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen (N), but it also requires low or less N inputs as it can fix up to 70% of its N requirements (Flowers et al., 2010) [9] . Chickpea productivity is constrained by several abiotic stresses (Singh et al., 1994; Gaur et al., 2007 and Chaudhary et al., 2016) [8, 11, 4] and salinity is one of the most important determinants of crop growth over a range of environments. In Australia and India, salinity has already become a major deterrent to crop production, including legumes. In India alone, about 13 million ha are currently affected by salinity. In Uttar Pradesh salt affected area was about 13.69 lakh ha (www.cssri.org). Salinity adversely affects the plant growth due to low osmotic potential and nutrient imbalance. These factors affect the physiological and biochemical activities and growth and development of plants (Munns and James, 2003) [25] .