Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) Diversity, cytogenetics and breeding
Authors: Laskar, R.A., Khan, S., Deb, C.R., Tomlekova, N., Wani, M.R., Raina, A. and Amin, R.
Volume: 7
Pages: 319-369
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-23400-3_9
Abstract:Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik. ssp. culinaris) is one of the oldest cultivated plants that originated from L. culinaris Medik. ssp. orientalis in the Near East arc and Asia Minor. This cool season legume crop is an excellent food source to provide energy, proteins and iron in the human diet. Most lentil-growing countries have a shared objective of higher and more stable seed yield, which often entails breeding for adaptation to abiotic and biotic stresses, which otherwise cause a substantial reduction in crop yield and production. Lentil domestication and selection over thousands of years led to the low amount of genetic variation in the current cultivated species and this scarcity in genetic variability represents a major constraint for lentil breeding. Thus far, lentil breeders have been successful in improving some easily manageable monogenic traits using conventional breeding techniques of selection and recombination. However, these conventional techniques are insufficient to address economic traits like seed yield due to polygenic inheritance and genotypeenvironment interaction. Other species of the genus Lens are important sources of genetic variation for breeding key traits into new lentil varieties. Induced mutagenesis is a powerful breeding tool and can greatly supplement the availability of lentil genomic resources. Impressive progress in applications of biotechnological innovations in the utilization of genetic resources for lentil genetic improvement will further accelerate the development of improved varieties. This chapter provides an overview on present status of lentil genetic improvement and summarizes the various important aspects of lentil diversity, cytogenetic and breeding.
Source: Scopus