EVALUATING SYMBIOTIC EFFICIENCY OF Mesorhizobium REDUCING SYMPTOMS OF CHICKPEA YELLOW MOSAIC VIRUS

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) belongs to legumes reducing atmospheric nitrogen symbiotically through Rhizobia Spp. into proteins in a process leaves no carbon footprint. However, chickpea is highly susceptible to viral diseases, which limits productivity. Therefore, the current study is conducted, in two seasons (2015/2016, 2016/2017) to evaluate the symbiotic efficiency of Mesorhizobia in reducing the damage occurs in chickpea if was infected by chickpea yellow mosaic virus (CpYMV). For this aim, One viral (CpYMV) and two Mesorhizobial isolates (MS3All, MS8All) are isolated from open-fields of chickpea plants. Three chickpea experimental lines (F.07-268, F.07-258 and F.0744) and one Egyptian cultivar (Giza195) are dually infected by CpYMV and either of MS3All and MS8All. Then, infected plants are grown in pots in open-air at the cultivation area of the Faculty of Agriculture, Ain-Shams University (Shoubra). The results indicated that the viral infection led to a reduction in the dry weight of root (DWR) and shoot (DWS), the ratio of root-to-shoot (RSR) dry weight, the nodule counts (NN), the photosynthetic pigments and the nitrogen content (N2). Interestingly, the dry weight of nodules (DWN) is significantly increased in dually infected plants. Uniinoculated Chickpea using either of the two isolates of Mesorhizobia showed significant increase in all phenotypic parameters when virus infection is included; except for DWN that decreased com pared to control viral-infected plants but no mesorhizobia. The current study suggests that bacterial inoculation using Mesorhizobia is significantly reduced damaging effects of the virus on chickpea. Moreover, the MS3All isolate is suggested the more effective than MS8All and the experimental chickpea lines F.07-258 and F.07-44 had the highest significant levels of N2 for shoot than F.07-268 and Giza195 lines.