Short Communication : Protein content in wild and cultivated taxa of lentil (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris Medikus)

Abstract

The protein contents in 72 diverse accessions of lentil
ranged from 10.5 to 23.7 % with an average of 18.7 % in
varieties/breeding lines, 14.5 to 27.1 % with an average of
22.4 % in landraces of Mediterranean origin and 18.1 to 32.7
% with an average of 22.6 % in wild species. Significantly
high protein content (32.7 %) was recorded in accession
ILWL 47 belonging to Lens ervoides. The coefficient of
variation and standard deviation in Mediterranean landraces
(18.1 %) showed high protein contents as compared to
varieties/breeding lines (16.9 %) and wild species (17.8 %) .
As per the Jaccard’s similarity coefficient based on protein
content 72 accessions were grouped into two main clusters.
Cluster I possessed a solitary accession ILWL 47 while
remaining accessions were grouped in cluster II, which
was subdivided into sub cluster IIa with 48 genotypes and
IIb comprising of 29 accessions of varieties/breeding lines,
16 of wild species and 3 landraces. The results indicated
that Indian varieties/breeding lines are significantly different
from Mediterranean landraces and wild species in respect
of protein contents.