Effect of sodium nitroprusside on morphological characters under chilling stress in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

An experiment was conducted with chilling tolerant (IC-424234) and sensitive (PBG-1) chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes to study the effect of sodium nitroprusside (SNP)- nitric oxide donor applied as foliar spray of 150 and 300 microM concentrations at 45 DAS (vegetative stage), 85 DAS (flowering stage) and 125 DAS (post flowering stage). Both the concentrations of SNP (150 and 300 microM) resulted in significant increase in all the morphological characters viz. plant height, number of leaves plant1, leaf area plant(-1) and leaf area index (LAI) over the control at all the stages, though lower concentration (150 microM) was more effective. Chilling sensitive (CS) genotype PBG-1 responded more effectively to SNP treatment. Electrolyte leakage percentage was effectively reduced by SNP treatments in both the genotypes at low temperature (15 DAA). Chilling sensitive genotype PBG-1 treated with SNP (150 microM) recorded significantly higher yield contributing characters viz. number of pods plant1, number of seeds pod(-1), seed yield plant1(g), pod setting percentage (%), 100 seed weight (g) and yield (kg ha(-1)) over the chilling tolerant (IC-424234)