Evaluation of environment and cultivar impact on lentil protein, starch, mineral nutrients, and yield

Abstract

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is an important source of protein, starch, and mineral nutrients in many parts of the world. However, the impact of environment and cultivar on the enrichment of these nutrients is not well understood. Four lentil cultivars (‘Avondale’, ‘CDC Richlea’, ‘CDC Maxim’, and ‘CDC Imvincible’) varying in color, seed size, and maturity were evaluated at five Montana locations with diverse climatic and soil conditions over 3 yr. Significant cultivar, location, and year effects were found for yield, protein, starch, and minerals. Grain protein concentration was the highest at Moccasin (262 g kg−1) and lowest at Richland (246 g kg−1), whereas starch concentration was the highest at Richland (455 g kg−1) and lowest at Moccasin (441 g kg−1). Among cultivars, Avondale was the top yielding cultivar (1965 kg ha−1) and adaptable to most of the environments; CDC Imvincible was the top protein producer (265 g kg−1); and CDC Richlea is the leading starch producer (456 g kg−1). Grain protein concentration was negatively correlated with starch. Lentil grains varied in nutrient concentrations across locations, with the northcentral Montana region producing 10‐ to 20‐times greater selenium concentration than other locations. CDC Maxim had the highest iron (62.1 mg kg−1) and zinc (31.5 mg kg−1) concentrations. Seed protein concentration was positively correlated with phosphorus, sulfur, copper, and boron. Seed starch is positively correlated with magnesium and manganese. Results suggest that plant breeding and production site selection could enrich lentil nutrient concentrations to help combat malnutrition in the world.

Seed Yield, Crude Protein and Mineral Nutrients of Lentil Genotypes Evaluated across Diverse Environments under Organic and Conventional Farming

“…Seed mineral macronutrient contents (P, K) were also influenced by the environment (EV% > 92%) with the exception of seed K under organic farming where G × E effects explained 32.4% of the total variation ( Table 1 ). These results are partially in agreement with those of Chen et al [ 47 ] who found that beside environmental effects, cultivar selection is also very influential on lentil seed mineral nutrient concentrations (including P, K and secondary macronutrients, S, Ca, Mg) for lentils grown after wheat, barley, alfalfa or chemical fallow. On the other hand, our results comply to those by Vandemark et al [ 18 ] who found that for the majority of minerals in lentil seed the highest interaction effect was the location × year (i.e., Environment) effect in two locations in Washington (US).…”

“…For seed K, contents ranged from 0.80% in E8 to 1.30% in E7 (Thessaloniki/2020) under organic farming and from 0.87% in E2 (Larissa/2019) to 1.20% in E5 (Domokos/2020) under conventional farming. On absolute terms, seed P and K contents are more or less close to or slightly different from the ranges (P: 0.29–0.41%; K: 0.81–0.92%) reported in the study by Chen et al [ 47 ] for 15 environments in Montana (US) and comparable to those (P: 0.40–0.46%; K: 0.96–1.06%) reported in the study by Vandemark et al [ 18 ] in two locations in Washington (US). Notably, seed P and K contents were higher in the second wetter year (2020) as compared to those in 2019 growing season under both farming systems indicating that ample soil moisture conditions may have favored the uptake and accumulation of these nutrients from soil and translocation to the seed.…”

“…Levels of seed Fe among genotypes and across all environments ranged from 103.9 mg kg −1 (G2) to 177.7 mg kg −1 (G5) under organic farming and from 114.9 mg kg −1 (G4) to 256.5 mg kg −1 (G5) under conventional farming ( Table 2 ). Values for seed Fe are considerably high (almost double) of those (54.1–62.1 mg kg −1 ) reported by Chen et al [ 47 ] for 15 environments in Montana (US) and by far higher of those (26–92 mg kg −1 ) reported by Gupta et al [ 58 ] but for lentils grown in a greenhouse experiment. The levels of Cu in the seeds are broadly similar but our results are relatively higher for seed Mn, and Zn as compared to the results by Chen et al [ 47 ].…”

“…The seedling and flowering stages are the most sensitive to water availability and drought stress, [ 45 ] and as reported by Hamdi et al [ 46 ] a deficiency of water during any growth stage in lentil, as in any legume species, often results in a loss of SY. Lentil SY was also the lowest in a dry year (1.47 t ha −1 ) as compared to the highest (2.22 t ha −1 ) in a year with season precipitation was close to the normal across four lentil cultivars and five locations in Montana, USA [ 47 ].…”

“…However, G and G × E effects were highly significant for CP indicating that this seed quality trait can be genetically modified but can also be influenced by the environment (pedoclimatic fluctuations). Several other studies have also reported genetic and environmental effects that impact on lentil protein [ 24 , 47 , 51 , 52 ]. Little G × E interaction indicates that plant breeders may develop for growers a lentil genotype with high seed protein enriching ability to consistently produce high seed protein-concentration across geographical locations in Greece.…”