Strategic Identification of New Genetic Diversity to Expand Lentil Lens culinaris Medik. Production Using Nepal as an Example

A major priority for most plant breeders is to add new genotypes in their breeding programs. For that, they use a variety of breeding techniques, and often the times, they take new genotypes from a completely new environment. However, the introduction of new genotypes can be tiresome work to accomplish and can be complicated by their specific adaptation requirements. Several previous studies have reported that lentil adaptation to a new environment largely depends on the in-season temperature, photoperiod, and interactions of these two factors. Thus, to identify potentially adapted genotypes for diverse growing regions of Nepal, two field trials were conducted in the winter of 2016 and 2017, with a lentil diversity panel (N = 324). Phenotypic data - Days to - emergence (DTE), flowering (DTF), swollen pod (DTS) and maturity (DTM), and environmental data such as minimum and maximum temperatures, day length and rainfall, were collected from both years. Leveraging these data with the genotype clusters and the photothermal modelling information from a recent study by Wright et al. (2020), we identified a list of potentially adapted genotypes to different locations in Nepal.