Legume Genomics and Genetics 2016, Vol.7, No.1, 1-11
1
Research Article Open Access
Heat Tolerance in Lentil under Field Conditions
Kumar J.
1,
, Kant R.
1
, Kumar S.
2
, Basu P.S.
3
, Sarker A.
4
, Singh N.P.
1
1 Division of Crop Improvement, ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kalyanpur, Kanpur-208024, India
2 Biodiversity and Integrated Gene Management Program, International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), P.O. Box 6299,
Rabat-Institute, Rabat, Morocco
3 Division of Basic Sciences, ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kalyanpur, Kanpur-208024, India
4 ICARDA South Asia & China Regional Program, NASC Complex, DPS Marg, New Delhi-110012, India
Corresponding author Email:
Legume Genomics and Genetics, 2016, Vol.7, No.1 doi: 10.5376/lgg.2016.07.0001
Received: 23 Nov., 2015
Accepted: 05 Jan., 2016
Published: 23 Mar., 2016
Copyright © 2016
Kumar et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Kumar J., Kant R., Kumar S., Basu P.S., Sarker A., and Singh N.P., 2016, Heat tolerance in lentil under field conditions, Legume Genomics and Genetics, 7(1):
1-11 (doi: 10.5376/lgg.2016.07.0001)
Abstract
In the present study, 334 lentil accessions were screened for heat tolerance under field conditions in 2011-12 and 160
accessions encounter high temperature (>35 ºC) during the reproductive stage were again screened in 2012-13. Only 37 accessions
podded normally and showed pod formation on terminal branch were identified heat tolerant and remaining 59 accessions podded
rarely but flowered were identified sensitive to higher temperature. The combined analysis of variance over the years indicated
significant genotypic variability for filled and unfilled pods/plant, filled pods on terminal branch and also for 100-seed weight. High
heritability was estimated for filled pods/plant (46.3%) and filled pods on terminal branch (58.1%). Based on maximum number of
filled pods per plant and on terminal branch along with lower standard error of mean over the years resulted in identification of heat
tolerant genotypes (FLIP2009-55L, IG2507 and IG4258). These genotypes also showed higher pollen viability at higher temperature,
indicating the usefulness of above trait for identification of heat tolerant donors for lentil breeding program.
Keywords
Filled and unfilled pods; 100-Seed weight; Pollen viability; High temperature; Lentil
1 Introduction
Lentil (
Lens culinaris
subsp.
culinaris
Medikus) is an
important cool-season legume crop of rainfed
agriculture for diversification and intensification of
cereal-based cropping systems worldwide. It is grown
globally on 3.74 mha area and produces 3.40 mt of
grains with an average productivity of 915 kg ha
-1
(Erskine et al., 2011). India shares about 0.94-1.03 mt
(28%) of global lentil production by cultivating it on
1.48-1.59 mha area. It is mostly grown under residual
soil moisture conditions during the winter season and
hence this crop invariably encounters drought and heat
stresses at the time of podding and grain filling period
when temperature rises suddenly. As a result it leads
to forced maturity and lower yield. In recent years, the
global warming has become as a major challenge to
rainfed agriculture. It has predicted that heat stress
will have more adverse effects on vulnerability of
food crops under climate change rather than drought.
Therefore, in coming years, high temperature can be
an important constraint in lentil production, if night
temperature rises by at least 2 °C. Due to this in India,
northern part can have higher levels of warming by
2050, while its central and north-eastern parts now
have about 11.7 mha as fallow after late harvest of
rice and delayed sowing of lentil in these areas
encounters force maturity due to high temperature
(Subbarao et al., 2001).
In lentil, flowering is known to be very sensitive to
changes in external environment especially in
temperature and photoperiod. Therefore, heat stress at
reproductive stage causes heavy loss in grain yield of
lentil (Summerfield et al., 1985). Thus, heat tolerant
cultivars can provide not only an opportunity of
horizontal expansion of lentil cultivation in rice-fallow
lands but also can help to increase lentil productivity
by minimizing the yield losses occurring due to forced
maturity. It can be visualized that the increases in
temperature will have more adverse effects on
cool-season crops (e.g. lentil) than the rainy-season
crops (Kumar, 2006). Therefore, identification of heat
tolerant genotypes in available germplasm and their
