Morphological characterization and genetic diversity in lentil (Lens culinaris medikus ssp. culinaris) germplasm

LENTIL is a major and important food legume. It plays an important role in human, animal and social health improvement. Nutritionally, lentil is very rich and complementary to any cereal crops including rice.

Lentil fixes atmospheric nitrogen association with Rhizobium sp, for this it's cultivation improves soil nitrogen, carbon and organic matter balance in soil. Genetic diversity has been considered an important factor in any crop improvement programme. However, the experiment of lentil was conducted to assess the genetic diversity of lentil genotypes in respect of agro-morphological traits.

The investigation was carried out at regional plant genetic resources centre, RARS, Bangladesh Agricultural Institute, Iishurdi, Pabna, during the Rabi season of 2010–11. The experiment involved 220 lentil Germplasm two varieties of BARI Masur, six were used as test genotype.

Data was analysed statistically by non-replication with computer and the mean were separated. Genetic diversity was studied following Mahalanobis's generalized distance analysis(D2). Statistical analysis were done using the GENSTST 5 programme. The experiment involved 220 lentil germplasm and two varieties of BARI Masur 4 and Bari Masur 6 were used as test genotype.

Significant variations among lentil genotypes were observed in respect of days to 1^st flowering, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height and numbers of pods per peduncles, numbers of pods per plant, numbers of seeds per plant, 100 seeds weight and yield per plant. Considering the mean value, the germplasms were grouped into 10 clusters. The highst number of genotype (17) was in cluster X and lowest (5) both in cluster II & IVB. Cluster IV had the highest cluster mean for number of pods per plant (297.08), number of seeds per plant (594.16), 100 seeds weight (1.44 gm) and yield per plant (8.53g). Among them, the highest inter cluster distance was obtained between the cluster IV &I (24.61) followed by IV &III (22.33), while the lowest was between IX&II (1.63). The maximum value of intercluster distance indicated that the genotypes belonging to cluster IV were far diverged from those of cluster I. The first female flower initiation was earlier in BD-3812 (49 days) in cluster I and cluster IV had highest grain yield per plant (8.53). BD 3807 produced significant maximum number of pods per plant (298.40) in cluster IV.

The investigation was carried out at RARS, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Ishurdi, Pubna during the Rabi season 2010–11. Due to time and seasonal constraints the experiment was laid only on unit plot size of 4m × 1m, and seeds were sown in rows with spacing 40 cm. The research will help in increasing the cereal production during Rabi season.