Research indicates that the postprandial glycemic benefits of consuming whole pulses are retained when consumed in a mixed meal, pureed, and ground into flours. The glycemic benefits of pulse flours when incorporated into extruded products are unknown. In a randomized, repeated-measures crossover study, adults (n = 26) consumed extruded corn snacks made with the addition of 40% pulse flour from either whole yellow pea, split yellow pea, green lentil, chickpea, or pinto bean. The control snack was 100% corn. Food intake was measured with an ad libitum meal consumed at 120 min. Blood glucose (BG), insulin and appetite were measured regularly before (pre-meal, 0-120 min) and after (post-meal, 140-200 min) the meal. Pinto bean and chickpea snacks led to lower (p < 0.05) pre-meal BG incremental area under the curve (iAUC), compared with control, whole yellow pea and green lentil snacks. Pinto bean snack also led to lower (pre-meal BG (p < 0.05) and insulin (p < 0.05) iAUC compared with control, whole yellow pea, and split yellow pea snacks. There were no differences in food intake or appetite. These findings indicate that effects of replacing corn with pulse flours in extruded snacks on BG, and insulin are dependent on pulse type. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02402504. Registered on 30 March 2015. Novelty: The incorporation of pinto bean and chickpea flour into extruded corn snacks improves postprandial glycemic response. Pulse containing snacks were equally as palatable as the corn snacks. The incorporation of pulses into corn snacks increased the protein and fibre content.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) production in the Canadian prairies is challenging due to a lack of effective weed management mainly because of poor competition ability of the crop and limited registered herbicide options. Chickpea genotype with resistance to imidazolinone (IMI) herbicides has been identified. A point mutation in the acetohydroxyacid synthase1 (AHAS1) gene at C581 to T581, resulting in an amino acid substitution from Ala194 to Val194 (position 205, standardized to arabidopsis), confers the resistance to imazamox in chickpea. However, the molecular mechanism leading to the resistance is not fully understood. In many plant species, contrasting transcription levels of AHAS gene has been implicated in the resistant and susceptible genotypes in response to IMI. The objectives of this research were to compare the AHAS gene expression and AHAS enzyme activity in resistant and susceptible chickpea cultivars in response to imazamox herbicide treatment. Results from RT-qPCR indicated that there is no significant change in the transcript levels of AHAS1 between the susceptible and the resistant genotypes in response to imazamox treatment. Protein hydrophobic cluster analysis, protein-ligand docking analysis, and AHAS enzyme activity assay all indicated that the resistance to imazamox in chickpea is due to the alteration of interaction of the AHAS1 enzyme with the imazamox herbicide.

Rhizobacteria promote and have beneficial effects on plant growth, making them useful to agriculture. Nevertheless, the rhizosphere of the chickpea plant has not been extensively examined. The aim of the present study was to select indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) producing rhizobacteria from the rhizosphere of chickpea plants for their potential use as biofertilizers. After obtaining a collection of 864 bacterial isolates, we performed a screen using the Salkowski reaction for the presence of auxin compounds (such as IAA) in bacterial Luria-Bertani supernatant (BLBS). Our results demonstrate that the Salkowski reaction has a greater specificity for detecting IAA than other tested auxins. Ten bacterial isolates displaying a wide range of auxin accumulation were selected, producing IAA levels of 5 to 90 μmol/L (according to the Salkowski reaction). Bacterial isolates were identified on the basis of 16S rDNA partial sequences: 9 isolates belonged to Enterobacter, and 1 isolate was classified as Serratia. The effect of BLBS on root morphology was evaluated in Arabidopsis thaliana. IAA production by rhizobacteria was confirmed by means of a DR5::GFP construct that is responsive to IAA, and also by HPLC-GC/MS. Finally, we observed that IAA secreted by rhizobacteria (i) modified the root architecture of A. thaliana, (ii) caused an increase in chickpea root biomass, and (iii) activated the green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene driven by the DR5 promoter. These findings provide evidence that these novel bacterial isolates may be considered as putative plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria modifying root architecture and increasing root biomass.

This study investigated whether pulses (chickpeas, yellow peas, navy beans, lentils) have an effect on blood glucose (BG) and appetite following a fixed-size meal 2 h later. Over the following 2 h, all pulses lowered BG area under the curve (AUC) and lentils reduced appetite AUC compared with white bread (p < 0.05). Following the meal, BG was lower after lentils and chickpeas at 150 and 165 min, and AUC was lower after lentils compared with white bread (p < 0.05).