RESEARCHERS from The University of Western Australia and The International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) have made a breakthrough that will allow chickpea breeders to develop new chickpea varieties with improved adaptation to target environments.
The research found variability of root architectural traits was characterised across 270 chickpea genotypes including the core collection, providing the basis for breeding new varieties with suitable root traits to efficiently access soil nutrients and water and adapt to drought.
Yinglong Chen from UWA’s Institute of Agriculture and School of Earth and Environment used a novel semi-hydroponic platform to measure the two-dimensional root system architecture.
Dr Chen said the study identified chickpea genotypes with different root properties, which can be used with follow-up investigations to identify candidate genotypes with desirable root traits for specific soils.