What makes lentil less sensitive to the light quality and its potential usage

Light is essential for plant growth and development. Green plants selectively absorb blue and red wavelengths of the light, which resulted in a decrease in red/far-red (R/FR) ratio in the surrounding environment. The reduction is sensed by the plants, thereby signaling the presence of neighboring plants/weeds as potential competition, which would lead to enhanced stem elongation and accelerated transition to flowering. However, for crop species, this could lead to decreased yield if plants spend resources on vegetative growth at the expense of reproductive development. Wild lentils tend to be less sensitive to red/far-red related light quality change compared to cultivated ones. We intend to investigate responses in a wide range of lentil genotypes by looking at responses to contrasting R/FR in a controlled environmental growth facility as well as in the field. The presence of the variability in response to shifts in R/FR would suggest there are cultivated lines that should be studied for their adaptation to variable light environments. We are phenotyping and genotyping one interspecific RIL population and a sub-selection of the lentil diversity panel with a view to tag regions of the lentil genome associated with the sensitivity to light quality and to discover their potential usages in lentil breeding program.