Screening of chickpea genotypes for boron biofortification potential

Background: Malnutrition is a significant threat to mankind and deficiency of important minerals like boron (B) exert negative impacts on human health mostly in developing and least developed countries. Chickpea is an important legume with wide consumption in human diet due to easily digestible dietary protein and grown. Chickpea is mostly grown in arid and semi-arid regions of Pakistan. The B-deficiency in these areas not only decreases chickpea productivity, but also results lowers B concentration in grains. Different chickpea genotypes are capable of perform differently due to their divergent genetic makeup under stressful environmental conditions. Therefore, this field study screened different chickpea geno-types to improve yield and B biofortification.Methods: For this purpose 20 'desi' (i.e., 'TG-1430', 'Parbat', 'TG-1616', 'TG-1620', '05A028', 'TG-1601', 'TG -1623', 'Thal-2006', 'TG-1218', 'TG-1513', 'Chattan', 'BK-2011', 'TG-1500', 'NIAB-2016', 'GGP-1456', 'TG -1618', 'TG-1619', 'Bittle-2016', 'TG-1415' and 'Punjab-2008') and 06 'kabuli' (i.e., 'TGK-228', 'TGK-1767', 'TGK-1802', 'NOOR-2009', 'TGK-1761' and 'TGK-1805') chickpea genotypes were sown under 0 or 1 kg B ha-1 as soil application.Results: Results indicated that B application improved the growth, nodulation, yield and grains B concen-trations of all genotypes; however, genotype significantly differed in their response. Of the 20 'desi' geno-types 'Punjab-2008' recorded the highest leaf area index, leaf area duration, crop growth rate, nodulation, yield and related traits under B application. However, genotypes 'BK-2011', 'TG-1500' and 'NIAB-2016' had higher grains B content under 1 kg ha-1 B application. Similarly, 'kabuli genotypes', i.e., 'TGK-1761' and 'TGK-1802' recorded higher nodulation, while 'NOOR-2009' had higher leaf area index, leaf area dura-tion, crop growth rate, 1000-grain weight, grain yield and biological yield with 1 kg ha-1 B application compared to the rest of the 'kabuli' genotypes included in the study. The highest grain B concentration was recorded for 'TGK-1767' among 'kabuli' genotypes.Conclusion: In conclusion, 'desi' genotype 'Punjab-2008' and 'kabuli' genotype 'NOOR-2009' should be grown under 1 kg ha-1 B application to get higher productivity and B biofortification. The genotypes which accumulated more B in their seeds should be included in future breeding programs to produce B-rich grains for reducing malnutrition.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).