Introduction:
Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to global food security, with rising temperatures and erratic precipitation threatening major cropping systems. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), a protein-rich legume, offers strategic value for climate-resilient agriculture due to its drought tolerance, nitrogen fixation, and adaptability to marginal environments. This study explores the genetic and physiological bases of chickpea’s resilience, aiming to identify key mechanisms and genomic markers underpinning its adaptive performance under warming climate scenarios.
Methods:
An integrated framework combining multi-location field trials, controlled-environment assays, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) was applied to 120 chickpea genotypes representing global diversity. Drought tolerance was evaluated using key physiological indicators such as photosynthetic efficiency, osmotic adjustment, and antioxidant responses. GWAS identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with these adaptive traits. Climate modeling projected genotype performance under 1.5–3°C warming scenarios, while rotation trials assessed soil fertility and water-use efficiency benefits.
Results:
Chickpea exhibited distinct genotype-dependent resilience mechanisms, including up to 60% higher osmolyte accumulation and over twofold enhancement in antioxidant capacity under terminal drought stress. GWAS revealed 22 significant marker–trait associations linked to stress-responsive genes, with key QTLs explaining up to 32.4% of phenotypic variance. Climate projections indicated a 15–25% yield stability advantage over conventional cereals under moderate warming. Diversified rotations improved soil nitrogen by up to 18% and water-use efficiency by 35%.
Conclusions:
This study provides a mechanistic and genomic basis for chickpea’s climate resilience, linking specific allelic variants to field-level performance. While genotype-by-environment interactions and climate projection uncertainties remain, the findings advance current understanding by offering molecular and agronomic targets for climate-adaptive breeding. Chickpea thus stands as a cornerstone crop for sustainable intensification and agricultural resilience under a changing climate.
