Study Lentil (Lens culinaris L.) Landraces for cold tolerance under Field and Controlled Conditions

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is one of the main food legume crops in Iran, where it is grown as a Rainfed crop in the spring season in cold regions. One of the obstacles of autumn cultivation in cold regions is the negative effects of cold and frost. So, in order to expend autumn cultivation, introducing cold varieties are needed. But until now, a cold tolerant lentil variety has not been introduced. Assessment of cold tolerance, introducing autumn cultivated cultivars and production stability are important goals of crop breeding programs in cold regions.

This study was carried out during the (2021-2022) growing season at the Dryland Agricultural Research Center. Plant materials consisted of 13 Lentil landraces that were collected from Iran and a check variety Sana. Experiments were conducted at rainfed conditions using a complete block design with two replications. Plants were evaluated for cold tolerance screening in the field under natural conditions with a cold tolerance rating (CTR: cold tolerance score) scale. observations of five randomly selected plants from each plot were recorded for plant height and seed number per plant. Green seeker calculated the normalized difference in the vegetative index using red and near infra-red light. Cold tolerance of landraces was also evaluated under controlled conditions (cold room).

According to the field trial results, none of the landraces had cold damage effects. Considering yield, NDVI index, plant height, biomass and seed number per plant, landraces 4 (Ardebil- Nir- Dash Boulagh) and 1 (Ardebil- Nir- chehre bargh) were the best. These landraces had 41% and 31% higher yields than the Sana check variety. Controlled condition results showed that landraces 2 (Ardebil- Namin- Nane Karan), 3 (Ardebil- Namin- Dodran), 9 (Varzegan- Orangh) and 11 (Varzegan- Somedel) had 91-100 survival percentage and selected as highly tolerant. Also, landraces 1 and 5 had 81.5- 82.5 survival percentages and were considered as tolerant.

Totally, results showed highly significant differences between landraces. some landraces such as number 1(Ardebil- Nir- chehre bargh) and 4 (Ardebil- Nir- Dash Boulagh), had suitable agronomic attributes and could be used in lentil breeding programs. Comparing field and controlled condition results showed accuracy of evaluating cold tolerance under controlled condition.