INDUCTION AND INHERITANCE OF DETERMINATE GROWTH HABIT IN CHICKPEA (CICER-ARIETINUM L)

The character of determinate plant growth has not been reported for chickpea and has not been observed in the world germplasm collection at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India. A determinate growth habit would be desirable where growing conditions often lead to excessive vegetative growth. We attempted to generate this trait by mutation breeding. Seeds of the cultivar ICCV 6 were exposed to varying irradiation treatments, M(1) and M(2) populations were raised, and in the latter one plant was detected that showed the determinate growth habit and female sterility. The character of determinate growth segregated in a postulated digenic epistatic 3:13 fashion in the F-2 and confirmed its digenic mode of inheritance in the F-3 and F-4. The symbol cd is proposed for the allele conditioning for determinancy and Dt for the allele expressing the determinate trait. Continued mutation breeding with this and other material may result in identifying fully fertile, determinate plant types.