Unveiling the Potential of OsRuvB DNA Helicases in Enhancing Salinity Stress Tolerance in Chickpea

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a self-pollinated true diploid (2n=2x=16) cool season leguminous crop that ranks second among food grain legumes after soybean. It grows under a wide range of climatic conditions and is highly sensitive to salt stress. In the present study, transgenic chickpea plants (var. HC-1) carrying OsRuvB gene were screened for salt stress. Putative transformants were screened at an early stage through PCR amplification using gene specific primers and a transformation frequency of 36.2% was observed. Physio-biochemical analysis of selected T2 transgenic plants subjected to 100 mM salt stress showed that transgenic plants were able to maintain higher chlorophyll content, relative water content, cell viability, proline content, Na+/K+ content, catalase and peroxidase activity compared to the wild type plants. Whereas electrolytic leakage and lipid peroxidation were relatively less as compared to the wild type plants under 100 mM stress. Among all transgenic lines, line 8 performed well with respect to all the parameters studied and can be taken further for the development of transgenic chickpea plants for salt stress tolerance.