Lentil is a good source of protein, dietary fibre and essential
minerals and therefore, has the potential to be used as a
staple food crop for eradicating the hidden hunger. Lentil
genetic resources including germplasm and wild species
possess genetic variability for different agronomic and
economic traits which needs to be studied. In the present
study, 570 germplasm accessions of lentil were
characterized and evaluated for quality traits for over five
years. Protein contents were estimated for five years, while
amino acid composition was assessed in seeds harvested
during the year 2015-16. Significant variation for the protein
content and amino acids was recorded in the germplasm.
Two medium bold seeded germplasm accessions, IC208326
and IC208329 were found promising possessing high
percentage of protein contents of 27.4 to 28.5 with 1.5-2.0
times higher content of total aromatic amino acids and
methionine. The magnitude of heritability in broad sense
for seed protein content was found moderate (31.31%)
whereas for some agronomic traits like plant height, days
to flowering, no. of pods per plant and 100 seed weight it
was high in the range of 66% to 97%. Identification of
unique/potential germplasm and the utilization for
improvement of lentil is an option in conventional breeding
progrmme.
Keywords: Legumes, amino acids profile, characterization, protein content
Year: 2018
Volume: 78
Issue: 4
Article DOI: 10.31742/IJGPB.78.4.9
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906
N. K. Gautam, R. Bhardwaj, S. Yadav, P. Suneja, K. Tripathi and B. Ram info_circle