Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important legume crop grown mainly in the arid and semi- rid regions of the world. Drought is the major factor causing detrimental effect to chickpea growth and productivity. Transcription factors have been reported as key regulators of drought tolerance. In this study, we analyzed the expression profile of DREB transcription factor in the leaves of two tolerant (MCC537 and international MCC877) and one susceptible (MCC759) chickpea genotypes treated with dehydration after 21 days of sowing at 3 time points (24, 48 and 96 hours after irrigation disruption) to assess the relation between the differential expression levels of this gene and the differential drought tolerability of these genotypes. Gene expression analysis using real-time quantitative PCR indicated that DREB2A was significantly induced by drought stress. At two first time points (24 and 48 hr), the expression level of this gene was approximately 3 fold higher than sensitive genotype under drought condition. The results demonstrated that this TF may play a critical role to improve drought tolerance. Thus, this finding may also confirm that selection of potential dehydration-responsive genes could facilitate the development of transgenic chickpea varieties.

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