Sara Borhani - Biotechnology and Plant Breeding Dept., College of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Saeedreza Vessal - Research Center for Plant Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Abdolreza Bagheri - Biotechnology and Plant Breeding Dept., College of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Farhad Shokoohifar - Research Center for Plant Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the major legume crop mainly grown in the arid and semi-arid regions. Terminal drought is an important limiting factor to chickpea growth and productivity. Transcription factors have been reported as critical regulators of drought tolerance. In this survey, we analyzed the expression pattern of DREB transcription factors in the leaves of two tolerant (MCC537) and susceptible (MCC674) chickpea genotypes treated with progressive water stress after 21 days of sowing at 3 time points (1, 2 and 4 days) to analyze the relation between the differential expression levels of this gene in terms of drought tolerability of these genotypes. Gene expression analysis using semi quantitative RT- PCR indicated that DREB2A was significantly induced by dehydration stress. Expression level of this gene in tolerant genotype was approximately 2 fold higher than the relative control under drought condition. The results showed that this TF may functions as a critical factor to improve drought tolerance. It also may be a candidate drought-responsive gene to facilitate molecular breeding and development of transgenic chickpea varieties

drought, chickpea, DREB TF, gene expression, SQRT- PCR