Genetic diversity of pod and seed characteristics in lentil germplasm of Iran

To assess genetic diversity of pod and seed characteristics in native lentil germplasm of Iran، 302 accessions from the lentil collection of the National Plant Gene Bank of Iran were evaluated. Lentil germplasm studied، were collected from 13 provinces in the country and characterized for variation in: number of pods plant-1، number of seeds pod-1، pod dehiscence، cotyledon color، color pattern on seed testa، pattern of testa، background color of testa، pod pigmentation and epicotyl color in 2008-2009 cropping cycle in Alarouq field station، Ardabil، Iran. The statistics calculated for analysis the variation included: mean standard deviation and coefficient of variation for quantitative traits، and mode and Shanoon-Weaver diversity index for qualitative traits. A high level of diversity was observed in Iranian lentil accessions examined in this experiment. The highest level of variance in qualitative traits was observed for pod pigmentation and cotyledon color. Pod dehiscence and number of pods plant-1 showed the highest diversity among the quantitative traits. The cluster analysis using all nine characteristics grouped the lentil accessions in five distinct clusters. Number of pods plant-1 appeared to be the major differentiating trait among the main clusters. The comparison among clusters for pod and seed characteristics revealed that lentil accessions in cluster 5 had the highest pod. plant-1 and are of high potential for utilization in lentil breeding programs.