Development of new kabuli large-seeded chickpea materials with resistance to Ascochyta blight

Appearance and size of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) seeds are key factors for the market in the Mediterranean Basin driven by consumer preferences. Hence, kabuli large seeds are sold on the market at higher price than the desi seeds. In this crop, Ascochyta blight (caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Lab.) is a serious disease causing major losses in yield. Thus, developing large-seeded kabuli cultivars resistant to blight would be of great importance to farmers. In this study, the use of transgressive inheritance to select new allelic combinations for seed size was applied to develop new chickpea materials with large seeds and resistance to blight. Crosses between five different advanced lines of kabuli chickpea genotypes with medium–large seed size and resistant to blight were performed. As a results of the selections carried out during 10 successive years, 11 F5:9 lines resistant to blight and with large seed size were selected to be released as future varieties. The markers SCY17590 and CaETR were employed to confirm blight resistance of the material developed.