1. Lentil (Lens culinaris spp culinaris, Lens esculenta)
Introduction. Lentil (Lens culinaris spp culinaris Medik.) is one of the world's oldest crops
having been cultivated in southwestern Asia since 7000 BC. The crop is best adapted for
production in temperate climates but is now produced in different parts of the world. About
75% of world production is in the developing world.
Lentils are widely cultivated throughout Asia, Europe and North Africa. The seeds are used
chiefly in soups and stews, and the herbage is used as fodder in some places. Lentils are a good
source of protein, fiber, vitamin B, iron and phosphorous.
ORDER Fabales
Family Fabaceae
Genus Lens
Species culinaris
Common names: Masur, Masoor, Masura
Progenitor spp. L. orientalis
The Fertile Crescent or west Asia is recognized as the centre of its domestication and diversity,
where it is still an important winter-sown crop.
From the near East Lentil first spread to along the Nile and then to the Central Europe and then
to the Mediterranean and the Indian sub-continent. The lentil has been found in the excavations
dating from the Bronze Age.
The diploid chromosome number is
2n=2x=14
2. History and cultivation
• Lentils are one of the most ancient of cultivated foods and were likely domesticated in the near
east
• Lentils are cultivated in one or another variety in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe along
the Mediterranean coast and as far north as Germany, the Netherlands & France to US, Canada
and Australia. In Egypt, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries the parched seeds are widely
sold in shops and are esteemed the best food to carry on long journeys.
• Lentil has a restricted root system, tending to lodge at maturity because of its weak stem.
• Flowers are white, lilac or pale blue. The broad, smooth pods range from 8 to 40
• The weight of 100 seeds ranges from 1.5 to 8.0 g.
All Lens species are self-pollinating annual diploids (2n=14).
Macrosperma Microsperma
Large pods (15–20 × 7.5–10.5 mm) generally
flat enclosing large flattened seeds
Pods small or medium (6–15 × 3.5–7 mm),
convex. Seed flattened sub globose, small or
medium (3–6 mm diameter)
1000 seed weight is 25–50 g 1000 seeds weight up to 25 g
Height of plant is 25–75 cm. Height of plant 15–35 cm
2–3 flowered peduncles 1–4 flowered peduncles
Flowers large white with veins, rarely light
blue (7–8 mm long)
Flowers white to violet, small (5–7 mm long),
Oval shaped large leaflets with dimensions
15–27 × 4–10 mm
Elongated linear or 1anceo1ate shaped small
leaflets with dimensions 8–15 × 2–5 mm
3. Physical description
The lentil plant varies from 15 to 45 cm (6 to 18 inches) in
height and has many long ascending branches. The
compound leaves are alternate, with six pairs of oblong-
linear leaflets about 15 mm (0.5 inch) long and ending in a
spine. Two to four pale blue flowers are borne in the axils
of the leaves.
The small pods are broadly oblong and slightly inflated
and contain two seeds the shape of a doubly convex lens
and about 4–6 mm (0.17–0.24 inch) in diameter. There
are many cultivated varieties of the plant, differing in size,
hairiness, and colour of the leaves, flowers, and seeds.
The seeds may be more or less compressed in shape and
can be white, yellow, orange, tan, green, gray, or dark
brown in colour; they are also sometimes mottled or
speckled.
4. Breeding objectives
• High Seed Yield
• Appropriate seed size, shape, coat color and quality for different markets ranging from
large green to medium & small green, Bold to small red etc.
• High protein value
• Less cooking time
• Tolerance to drought
• Resistance to shattering
• Lodging tolerance
• Resistance to diseases: Rust (Ustilago fabae); Aschochyta blight; Wilt (Fusarium
oxysporum)
• Resistance to insects: Pod borer (Etiella zinckenella); Cutworm (Agrotis ipsilon); Aphid
(Aphis craccivora)
5. Breeding procedures
• Introduction
• Pure line selection among locally adapted germplasm
• Varietal hybridization
• Pedigree method
• Bulk method
• Single Seed Descent Method
• Backcross Method
• Mutation Breeding
• Molecular Breeding approaches:
Lentil breeders have been successful in improving a number of monogenic traits using
the selection-recombination-selection cycle of conventional plant breeding techniques.
With the advent of modern biotechnological tools such as recombinant DNA
technologies, molecular-marker based technologies and bioinformatics, lentil breeders
are now able to introduce new genetic variability into the cultivated gene pool, identify
the background genetic network and introgress desirable traits into cultivars using
genomics-assisted breeding and genetic engineering techniques more precisely, within a
short period of time.
Various morphological markers were categorized as qualitative markers, because they
exhibited monogenic dominant inheritance, include cotyledon (Yc),anthocyanin in the
stem (Gs), pod indehiscence (Pi), seed coat pattern (Scp), flower color (W), radiation
frost tolerance locus (Rf), early flowering (Sn).
