How does a lentil adapt to a new environment?

    Lentil breeders sometimes use exotic germplasm to broaden the genetic base and introduce desirable traits to elite cultivars. However, offsprings from these wide crosses often adapt poorly in the short growing season of western Canada. Identifying regions in the lentil genome that influences traits such as flowering time and maturity will help develop markers for breeders to effectively predict the adaption characteristics without trialing the plants in the field.  To achieve this objective, we are phenotyping and genotyping several RILs that are developed from crosses of adapted and exotic germplasm.

Materials/Populations:

LR-01 (ILL 1704 x CDC Robin) - a cross between a Mediterranean (ILL 1704) and a northern temperate (CDC Robin) cultivar. 

Lentil Nested Association Mapping (NAM) panel that was developed by crossing CDC Redberry with diverse lentil accessions from around the world. 

Locations:

Saskatchewan

Traits phenotyped:

Days to emergence

Days till 10% of plants have elongated tendrils

Days to flowering 

Days till 10% of Plants have Pods

Plant height

Lodging - scale of 1 to 5 (1 = upright, 5 = lodged)

Disease

Genotyping:

Lentil exome capture array  

Results:

Results will be available in the Fall 2018.

Who is working on this?

Teketel Haile

Alison Sackville 

Devini De Silva

Taryn Heidecker