Abstract
In recent years, due to the rise in food consumption, much of the attention has been focused to increase the yield of the agricultural crops which resulted in compromised nutritional quality. Efforts have to be undertaken to enhance the nutritional attributes of legumes, cereals and staple food crops by increasing amino acids and mineral content. In the present study, we evaluated a protoplast fusant (H. lixii MTCC 5659) for its ability to enhance nutritional value and defence activity in chickpea. Essential amino acids; methionine (9.82 mg kg(-1) dw), cysteine (2.61 mg kg(-1) dw), glycine (11.34 mg kg(-1) dw), valine (9.26 mg kg(-1) dw), and non-essential amino acids; aspartic acid (39.19 mg kg(-1) dw) and serine (17.53 mg kg(-1) dw) were significantly higher in seeds of fusant inoculated chickpea. Fusant significantly improved accumulation of mineral nutrients i.e. Cu (157.73 mg kg(-1) dw), Co (0.06 mg kg(-1) dw), Ni (1.85 mg kg(-1) dw), Zn (157.73 mg kg(-1) dw) and S (16.29 mg kg(-1) dw) in seeds. Biocontrol and defence activities of chickpea increased from 20 to 35% in fusant inoculated plants suggesting its potential to ameliorate biotic stress. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an increase in amino acids and mineral content of chickpea by fusant inoculation.