Assessment of the phenotypic diversity and agronomic performance of a Mediterranean lentil collection under rainfed conditions: towards efficient use in breeding programs for adaptation to Mediterranean-type environment

The improvement of lentil productivity and resilience to climate change require the deployment of breeding approaches and sustainable agronomic practices. Germplasm from the Mediterranean region could be an important source of useful traits for lentil breeding programs. Additionally, no-tillage could also contribute to maintaining lentil productivity in drought-prone environments. However, there are few investigations on breeding for adaptation to no-tillage in lentil, as this practice can create growing conditions that differ from those under conventional tillage. The main objectives of this study were to assess the phenotypic diversity of a lentil collection in different environments and to select promising accessions that can be used in lentil breeding programs. A Mediterranean lentil collection of 119 accessions was evaluated in Morocco (under no-till and conventional tillage) and in Turkey (during two growing seasons) under rainfed conditions. There was significant phenotypic variation among accessions for traits assessed. In addition, significant genotype-by-environment interaction effects were observed for grain yield and time to flowering. Moroccan landraces were the earliest to flower compared to landraces from Italy, Turkey, and Greece. Greek landraces displayed the highest mean values of hundred-seed weight. Landraces outperformed advanced lines in low-yielding environment (Turkey in 2022 season) in which higher yield was recorded in Turkish landraces, followed by Moroccan landraces. The high-yielding accessions identified in different environments could be used as donors in breeding programs.