Resumen de Chickpea seed production, seed quality and digestibility – genotype and environmental effects

Isa C. Ribeiro, João B. Freire, Nuno Simoes, Isabel Duarte, M. Manuela Chaves

• Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the third most important grain legume crop in the world andfirst in the Mediterranean basin and South Asia, having one of the best nutritional compositionsamong any dry edible legume (Nayyar et al. 2006). Rising temperatures in spring and earlysummer and the diminishing within-season rainfall, expose chickpea to drought stress duringpod set and seed filling (Berger 2007), which results in yield loss and decreased seed nutritionalcontent (Nayyar et al. 2006). Screening of a wide range of chickpea genotypes in order toidentify genetic variation in major traits involved in stress resistance has an increased relevancein the context of future decreased wet seasons and increased temperature in the Mediterraneanregion. In the framework of the EU project KBBE-2008-212337 “Sustainable water usesecuring food production in dry areas of the Mediterranean region (SWUP-MED)”, we arestudying two different chickpea varieties (from the Portuguese Varieties Catalogue) in whatconcerns seed quality. The genotypes Eldorado and Elixir were grown for two consecutive butdistinct meteorological years (2009 and 2010). Seed quality was evaluated according to protein,starch and fat content. Since seed nutritional value is also dependent on the seed proteindigestibility, we will evaluate it using an in vitro digestion method (Regmi et al. 2009). Proteinsresistant to simulated gastrointestinal digestion have the potential to cause adverse reactions.We aim to identify such proteins and relate their presence/abundance to genotype and growingconditions.