Evaluation of Wild Lentil Species as Genetic Resources to Improve Drought Tolerance in Cultivated Lentil

Current climate change models predict an increased frequency and intensity of drought for much of the developing world within the next 30 years. These events will negatively affect maize yields, potentially leading to economic and social instability in many smallholder farming communities. Knowledge about the genetic resources available for traits related to drought tolerance has great importance in developing breeding program strategies. The aim of this research was to study a maize landrace introgression panel to identify chromosomal regions associated with a drought tolerance index. For that, we performed Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) on 1326 landrace progenies developed by the CIMMYT Genetic Resources Program, originating from 20 landraces populations collected in arid regions. Phenotypic data were obtained from early testcross trials conducted in three sites and two contrasting irrigation environments, full irrigation (well-watered) and reduced irrigation (drought). The populations were genotyped using the DArTSeq® platform, and a final set of 5,695 SNPs markers was used. The genotypic values were estimated using spatial adjustment in a two-stage analysis. First, we performed the individual analysis for each site/irrigation treatment combination. The best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) were used to calculate the Harmonic Mean of Relative Performance (HMRP) as a drought tolerance index for each testcross. The second stage was a joint analysis, which was performed using the HMRP to obtain the best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) of the index for each genotype. Then, GWAS was performed to determine the marker-index associations and the marker-Grain Yield (GY) associations for the two irrigation treatments. We detected two significant markers associated with the drought-tolerance index, four associated with GY in drought condition, and other four associated with GY in irrigated conditions each. Although each of these markers explained less than 0.1% of the phenotypic variation for the index and GY, we found two genes likely related to the plant response to drought stress. For these markers, alleles from landraces provide a slightly higher yield under drought conditions. Our results indicate that the positive diversity delivered by landraces are still present on the backcrosses and this is a potential breeding strategy for improving maize for drought tolerance and for trait introgression bringing new superior allelic diversity from landraces to breeding populations.

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Starting material for the breeding of easily producible lentil varieties

Plant Breeding and Seed Production ◽

10.30835/2413-7510.2021.236980 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 8-15

Author(s):

O. M. Bezuhla ◽

L. N. Kobyzeva

Keyword(s):

Genetic Resources ◽

Seed Weight ◽

Plant Genetic Resources ◽

Starting Material ◽

Breeding Programs ◽

The Czech Republic ◽

Breeding Lines ◽

High Yields ◽

Wild Lentil ◽

Intensive Work

Materials and methods. As of January 1, 2021, the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources of Ukraine has a collection comprising 1,101 lentil specimens from 54 countries, including 90 Ukrainian specimens. Of these, 17% are breeding varieties, 45% are breeding lines, 37% are trivially bred varieties and forms, and about 1% are five wild lentil species. The collection specimens were evaluated in accordance with valid methods. Our objective was to evaluate the collection for the traits that determine ease of production and to offer starting material for breeding. Our purpose was to identify sources of valuable economic characteristics for the breeding of easily producible lentil varieties. Results and discussion. Basing on the multi-year results, we selected and proposed the starting material to create easily producible lentil varieties with the following characteristics: high yields of seeds (11 macrosperma sources (Krasnohradska 5 originating from Ukraine [1000-seed weight = 73 g]; 1913 T 15 from Canada [66 g]; UD0600141 from Spain [91 g]; and others) and 25 microsperma sources (UD0600707 from Ukraine [34 g]; Miledi from Russia [38 g]; CDC Redcap from Canada [38 g]; and others)); suitability for mechanized harvesting (6 macrosperma sources (Mistseva 5 from Ukraine, Ilina from Slovakia, 1921 T 11 from Canada, and others) and 18 microsperma sources (Novourenskaya 3565 from Russia, Pozdnyaya from the Czech Republic, CDC Redwing from Canada, and others)); improved biochemical composition and high cooking qualities of seeds (3 macrosperma sources (local accessions: UD0600141 from Spain, UD0600329 from Syria, UD0600151 from Mexico) and 10 microsperma sources (local accessions: UD0600451 from Bulgaria, UD0600017 from Afghanistan, UD0600979 from Israel, and others)). Conclusions. For 30 years of intensive work of the National Center for Genetic Resources of Plants of Ukraine, divers and original staring material of lentil has been collected and studied; sources of valuable economic characteristics have been identified for breeding programs of research institutions of Ukraine and other countries

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Can wild lentil genotypes help improve water use and transpiration efficiency in cultivated lentil?

Plant Genetic Resources ◽

10.1017/s1479262117000399 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 16 (5) ◽

pp. 459-468 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Linda Yuya Gorim ◽

Albert Vandenberg

Keyword(s):

Drought Tolerance ◽

Water Use ◽

Drought Indices ◽

Severe Drought ◽

Transpiration Efficiency ◽

Drought Tolerant ◽

Drought Conditions ◽

Moderate Drought ◽

Plant Level ◽

Wild Lentil

AbstractClimate change forecasts point to increased frequency of droughts which may affect plant growth. For protein crops such as lentil, genetic improvement of both water use and drought tolerance is necessary. Wild lentil species are known to have evolved in drought prone areas and can be introgressed into cultivated lentil, making them candidates for the evaluation of high transpiration efficiency (TE) and drought tolerance. We assessed TE, water use and drought tolerance at the plant level for five wild lentil species and in cultivated lentil. Under fully watered and moderate drought conditions, wild lentil genotypes consumed significantly less water to fix similar or more dry matter compared with their cultivated counterparts. Under severe drought conditions, the wild lentil genotype L. ervoides IG 72815 had significantly higher TE compared with L. culinaris Eston. Lens ervoides L-01-827A, had significantly higher yield compared with all other species in the presence or absence of drought and showed significantly higher (α = 5%) TE under moderate drought. Drought susceptibility index was identified as a tool to identify drought-tolerant lentil genotypes grown under severe drought. The numerous small seeds of wild lentil made it difficult to estimate drought indices that are weight based and require formulae that incorporate seed numbers.

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