Vegetos

Abstract

Lentil is winter season crop cultivated in rainfed areas of Eastern and Central India. This crop is a source of protein and micronutrients for rural poor in these regions. In present investigations fifty four elite lentil lines were evaluated in four environments for grain Fe and Zn concentration. On the basis of performance across locations IPL324 (90.98 mg/kg), L 4649 (93.75 mg/kg), P 2126 (101.28 mg/kg), L 5126 (103.98 mg/kg) were found to be promising for grain Fe concentration and P 13129 (67.26 mg/kg), ILL7663 (66.03 mg/kg), P 2126 (61.13 mg/kg) and L4649 (60.63 mg/kg) for grain Zn concentration. The PIC of SSRs ranged from 0.36 to 0.75. Genomic SSRs exhibited higher polymorphism than EST SSRs. Three clusters were identified. Cluster I included indigenous genotypes. Cluster II included lentil lines developed at IARI, New Delhi and exotic germplasm lines and Cluster II had only one Indian genotype. The crosses were suggested for developing mapping populations for grain Fe (L 5126 x HM 1 and L 5126 x MC 6) and Zn concentration (ILL 7663 x P 2125 and ILL 7663 x P 15104). The promising exotic germplasm lines ILL 7663, P 2233, P 2126 and P 13129 can be utilized for enhancing the present level of these micronutrients in Indian lentil varieties.