Genetic basis and adaptive implications of temperature-dependent and temperature-independent effects of drought on chickpea phenology

Abstract

Water deficit often hastens flowering of pulses partially because droughted plants are hotter. Separating temperature-independent and temperature-dependent effects of drought is important to understand, model and manipulate phenology genetically and agronomically. We define a new trait, drought effect on phenology (DEP = difference in flowering time between irrigated and rainfed crops), and use FST genome scan to probe for genomic regions under selection for this trait. Genomic regions overlapping for early- and late-sown crops would associate with temperature-independent effects and non-overlapping genomic regions would associate with temperature-dependent effects. Time to flowering shortened with increasing water stress quantified with carbon isotope composition. Genomic regions on chromosomes 4, 5, 7 and 8 were under selection for DEP. An overlapping region for early and late sowing on chromosome 8 revealed a temperature-independent effect with four candidate genes: BAM1, BAM2, HSL2 and ANT. The non-overlapping regions included six candidate genes: EMF1, EMF2, BRC1/TCP18, BZR1, NPGR1 and ERF1. Modelling to assess DEP adaptive value showed it reduces the likelihood of drought and heat stress at the expense of cold risk. Accounting for DEP would improve phenology models to predict adaptation to future climates and breeding against the combined risks of drought, heat, and cold stress. HighlightPredictive and genetic models that overlook drought effects on phenology can return biased predictions of adaptation to future climates. Here we study the genetic causes and adaptive consequences of hastened flowering under drought.