Morphological, biochemical & molecular characterization of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) germplasm

Forty seven lentil germplasm were collected from different sources for characterization based on morphological, biochemical and molecular basis. Morphological characterization was done based on different parameters like plant height, primary and secondary branches per plant, number of leaves per plant and fresh weights carried out at different stages of the crop and showed wide variability. Dry matter partitioning viz. leaf dry weight, pods dry weight, total dry weight, yield and yield components, pod per plant, seed per plant, 100 seeds weight and seed yield per plant, were recorded at the time of harvest. Biochemical parameters viz. chlorophyll content ranged from 0.49μg/gm (P-509) to 0.74μg/gm (KL5-218), total sugar content ranges from 0.09μg/gm (VR5-16/11) to 0.72μg/gm (PL-639) and protein content ranged from 0.12μg/gm (P-722) to 0.81μg/gm (K-75). Genetic diversity was also studied on the basis of RAPD marker, which gives different band pattern and based on that analysis dendogram was formed.