Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important legume crop grown mainly in the arid and semiarid regions of the world. Drought is the major factor causes detrimental effect to chickpea growth and productivity. Transcription factors have been reported to be the key regulators of drought tolerance. In this study, we analyzed the expression profile of WRKY transcription factor in the leaves of tolerant (MCC537) and susceptible (MCC674) chickpea genotypes under dehydration period after 21 days of sowing at 3 time points (24, 48 and 96 hours after irrigation withdrawal) to assess the relation between the differential expression levels of this gene and related drought tolerance of these genotypes. Gene expression analysis using real-time quantitative PCR indicated that WRKY was significantly induced by drought stress. At the last time point, the expression level of this gene was significantly increased up to 3 fold higher than control plants under drought condition. The results demonstrated that this TF may play a critical role in drought tolerance. It also may be a potential dehydration-responsive gene but it needs further studies to be used in transgenic chickpea processes.

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