Ameliorative Effect of Sodium Nitroprusside and Trichoderma on Morpho- Physiological Character of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genotypes under Drought Stress

Chickpea is very important food legume also it is the good source of carbohydrate (48.2-67.6%), starch (41-50%), protein (12.4-31.5%), fat (6%) as well as nutritionally important minerals. It is also used as a rotation crop as of its nitrogen fixing property. Drought stress is one of the most important abiotic stress disturbing plant growth and productivity worldwide. Grain legumes, in general, and chickpea, in particular, as compared to cereals seem to have more sensitivity towards drought stress. The present study was carried out during 2015-2016, in order to estimate drought tolerance in two chickpea genotypes (susceptible and tolerant), under both control and drought conditions and various parameters were recorded. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. Drought stress is created by applying PEG 10%. PEG 10% reduced most of the morpho-physiological attributes, but plants could sustain up drought stress when SNP and Trichoderma alone or in combination given.


INTRODUCTION
Chickpea is a crucial food legume which will be grown under a varied range of environments. It is well identified as a drought tolerant crop that performs well in low input agriculture and is taken into account as the second important leguminous crop in the world. The agri-food importance of chickpeas is associated to its great richness in proteins: 25.3 to 28.9% (Hulse, 1991). This leguminous crop is taken into account as substitute source of proteins for human nutrition (Tejera et al., 2006). Smita and Nayyar (2005) witnessed reduction in root length of Cicer arietinum under water stress and detrimental effects may be because of reduction in root-hair diameter as well as distortion and plasmolysis, therefore rendering the uptake of accessible water by roots.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS 1. Morphological and Growth Parameters Root length (cm)
Root length is measured at 35 and 70 DAS in the net house in controlled and treated plants from the root-stem transition to the base of the root apex. Shoot length (cm) Shoot height or length of one plant, from each treatment and under each replication was measured in centimetre from the base of the plant to the growing tip of the main shoot with the help of a meter scale and expressed in cm. The shoot height of three plants (one from each replication) was averaged to obtain the height of per plant for each treatment.

Number of leaves plant -1
The number of leaves plant -1 was counted separately at 35 and 70 DAS in net house in controlled and treated plants of chick pea genotypes.

Root shoot length ratio
The ratio root of root and shoot length is measured at 35 and 70 DAS.

MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS 1. Length of root (cm)
The data on root length at different treatments under two growth periods (35 and 70 DAS) are presented in Fig. 1. There was a significant decrease in root length with 10% PEG treatment. Among treatments, the maximum reduction of 44.06% and 43.36% in root length (9.89 and 9.88 cm) was recorded at 35 DAS under drought stress in Pusa 262 and Pant G-114, respectively as compared to SNP and Trichoderma treatment. Our results are in accordance with the findings of several workers who reported decreased root length in various crops under heavy metal stress (Esmaeilian et al., 2011;Asgharipour et al., 2011;Shekar et al., 2011). Both treatments namely, SNP and Trichoderma alone or in combination of SNP and Trichoderma showed increasing root length as compared to both control and PEG 10%. Smita and Nayyar (2005) also observed reduction in root length of Cicer arietinum under water stress and detrimental effects could be due to reduction in root-hair diameter as well as distortion and plasmolysis.
Among treatments, maximum root length (20.23 and 19.57 cm) was observed with SNP and Trichoderma at 70 DAS, in both the varieties, Pusa 262 and Pant G-114 respectively. Effect of NO on growth parameters of plants under drought, heavy metal and salinity stress has been reported (Nasibi & Kalantari, 2009;Zhao et al., 2001;Singh et al., 2008). Reduction of root length under stress conditions may due to an impediment of cell division and elongation leading kinds of tuberization.  (Turkan et al., 2004;Tuna et al., 2010), Kavar et al. (2007). According to Mohammadkhani and Heidari, (2008), all the upland rice varieties displayed significant reduction in shoot length at the most drought levels as compared with control. This reduction in growth might be due to low osmotic potential as well as a decrease in wall extensibility and cellular expansion.  Khalil et al. (2010) in Ocimum basilicum. Similar result was observed by Shao et al. (2008) where reduction in leaf area index and number of leaves under water stress were perhaps due to decline in cell enlargement and more leaf senescence resulting from reduced turgor pressure.

Root and Shoot Length ratio
Data pertaining to root shoot ratio at two growth periods (35 and 70 DAS) are presented in Fig. 4. which elucidated that the treatments had significantly decreased root shoot ratio under drought stress in both the varieties.
Among the treatments, the maximum increase in root shoot length ratio was observed in control treatment at 35 DAS in both the varieties, which is followed by SNP and Trichoderma treatment in combination at 70 DAS.  RESULT AND DISCUSSION Drought stress is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting plant growth and productivity globally. Keeping this in mind, the present investigation was undertaken in net house of Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi during winter session 2015-2016 to study the influence of PEG 6000 (10%) either alone or in combination with SNP and Trichoderma in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD), which consisted of 8 treatments, 3 replication for each treatment, 2 varieties, and plants were subjected to these chemicals in the pots at two different growth periods-35 and 70 DAS. The summary and conclusion obtained from the investigation are presented in this chapter. The salient finding of the investigation are summarized as under: 1. Drought stress is considered a major abiotic stress affecting plant growth and productivity. PEG 10% reduced most of the morpho-physiological attributes viz.  (100 ) and Trichoderma (10 6 cfu) alone or in combination. These showed ameliorative effect against drought stress, however, SNP alone led to increase shoot length by 31.33% and 32.88% at 70 DAS in both the varieties viz. Pusa 262 and Pant G-114, respectively as compared to control. 4. Number of leaves per plant increased significantly in combined treatment of SNP (100 M) and Trichoderma (10 6 cfu) which showed ameliorative effect against drought stress. Among treatments, the maximum number of leaves was recorded in combination of both SNP and Trichoderma at 70 DAS. 5. Root shoot length ratio decreased significantly with PEG 10%. And it increased significantly with SNP (100 M) and Trichoderma (10 6 cfu), alone or in combination. These showed ameliorative effect against drought stress. , B., Rani, I., Hayat, S., & Ahmad, A. (2007). Effect of 4-Cl-indole-3-acetic acidon the seed germination of Cicer arietinum exposed to Cadmium. Acta Botanica Croatica, 66, 57-65.  T1   T2   T3   T4   T5   T6   T7   T8