High acid invertase activity for a prolonged period in developing seeds/podwall of wild chickpea is detrimental to seed filling.

ABSTRACT

In the present study factors responsible for low seed biomass in wild Cicer species has been investigated. Cicer judaicum and chickpea cultivar PBG-1 were investigated to compare activities of some enzymes involved in carbon metabolism in podwall and seeds during crop development. Seed filling duration in wild species was about 15 days shorter than that of cultivated varieties due to rapid loss of moisture content and hence resulted in earlier maturity and reduced seed biomass. Longer seed filling duration appeared to be an important factor responsible for greater biomass of chickpea seeds. Because of absence of phosphoenol pyruvate carboxylase from 25-35 days after flowering and low sucrose synthase activities, the podwall of C. judaicum is not in a position to contribute significantly to the sink filling capacity of seeds. High acid invertase, low sucrose synthase activities during seed storage phase cause detrimental effect on seed filling and resulting in highly reduced sink strength and productivity of wild species. Successful transfer of stress tolerance from wild Cicer species to chickpea cultivars need to prevent the transfer of these observed unfavourable biochemical factors so that the productivity of chickpea crop remains unaffected during utilization of wild Cicer species in chickpea improvement.