The synthesis of chitinases is one of the strategies evolved in higher plants to resist stresses. To investigate the role of chitinases in the interaction between chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and pathogens, the expression of two classes of chitinase, I and III, was monitored in infected and noninfected plants with dif ferent disease resistance (resistant MCC10 and sensitive MCC724 genotypes). The expression levels of these genes in chickpea were studied at different times after inoculation with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri isolate 85. Semiquantitative reverse transcription PCR was used to study the differential induction of the chitinase genes. Expression levels of chitinase I in noninfected and infected MCC724 plants were higher than those in MCC10. Since chitinase III may play an effective role in plant defense, its expression levels were quantified by reverse transcription PCR. Chitinase III was induced in MCC724 within 6 h and in MCC10 in 48 h after inoculation. However, the expression levels of chitinase III in MCC10 noninfected plants were significantly higher than in MCC724. The results showed that chitinase III can be effective to enhance resistance to F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceri isolate 85.

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