Genetic diversity analysis of Moroccan lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) landraces using Simple Sequence Repeat and Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms reveals functional adaptation towards agro‐environmental origins

Abstract

In the absence of previous molecular characterization, we assessed genetic diversity of 53 Moroccan lentil landraces including two local cultivars using simple sequence repeat (SSR) and amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP). Nineteen SSRs yielded 213 alleles, and seven AFLP primer combinations gave 766 fragments of which 422 were polymorphic. Moderate to high genetic variation was observed. Several small groups of landraces were differentiated. Interestingly, one of the smallest groups contained short‐cycle landraces with high early vegetative growth. Landraces in that group were from the dry land location of Abda, where they were likely selected for adaptation to drought and heat stress over centuries. Another group contained two landraces from highland areas that may have been selected for specific adaptation to cold stress. A third group contained one landrace from the Zear region known for its seed quality and has been proposed for the protected designation of origin (PDO) quality mark. Both techniques gave evidence of differentiation of the latter landrace supporting the idea of PDO attribution. Functional grouping according to agro‐environmental origins, cycle duration and early vegetative vigour was observed.

Genetic Diversity of Cultivated Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) and Its Relation to the World's Agro-ecological Zones

“…For example, Moroccan germplasm expresses slightly less variation compared to those from Turkey due to narrower environmental conditions (Idrissi et al, 2015). The major agro-morphological changes related to adaptation are mostly improvements to yield, increasing seed size, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses as well as improving market-dependent quality traits.…”

“…These include restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs, Havey and Muehlbauer, 1989), amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs, Sharma et al, 1996; Alghamdi et al, 2014), random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs, Abo-Elwafa et al, 1995; Ford et al, 1997; Ferguson et al, 1998; Sonnante and Pignone, 2001), and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSRs, Scippa et al, 2008; Toklu et al, 2009; El-Nahas et al, 2011). Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) have the most widely used DNA markers for assessing genetic diversity in lentil (see Liu et al, 2008; Babayeva et al, 2009; Kaur et al, 2011; Zaccardelli et al, 2012; Dikshit et al, 2015; Idrissi et al, 2015). …”

Opportunities to improve the seasonal dynamics of water use in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) to enhance yield increase in water-limited environments

“…The high heritability estimates that were reported by these authors indicate the feasibility of making use of this genetic variability for the development of drought-adapted cultivars. Deep, well-developed roots and vigorous shoots at early-seedling stage were associated with drought escape and tolerance in lentil [21,42] as a way to ensure uptake of water and nutrients. Sarker et al [42] reported high correlations between stem length, taproot length, and lateral root number with lentil grain yield under drought.…”

GENETIC DIVERSITY IN LENTIL LANDRACES REVEALED BY DIVERSITY ARRAY TECHNOLOGY (DArT)

“…Until today, many studies have been conducted on genetic diversity of lentil varieties, species and landraces utilizing several approaches, including physiological and morphological markers (Erskine and Choudhary, 1986;Erskine et al, 1989), isozymes (Erskine and Muehlbauer, 1991), storage proteins of seed (Sultana et al, 2006) and DNA based molecular markers such as restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) (Havey and Muehlbauer, 1989), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) (Abo-Elwafa et al, 1995;Ahmad et al, 1996;Ford et al, 1997;Ferguson et al, 1998;Sonnante and Pignone, 2001;Yuzbasioglu et al, 2006), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) (Sharma et al, 1996;Toklu et al, 2009;Alghamdi et al, 2014), intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) (Fikiru et al, 2007;Scippa et al, 2008;Toklu et al, 2009;El-Nahas et al, 2011;Seyedimoradi and Talebi, 2014), simple sequence repeat (SSR) (Jin et al, 2008;Babayeva et al, 2009;Kaur et al, 2011;Zaccardelli et al, 2012;Kushwaha et al, 2013;Dikshit et al, 2015;Idrissi et al, 2015;Idrissi et al, 2018;Tsanakas et al, 2018) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (Lombardi et al, 2014;Basheer-Salimia et al, 2015;Khazaei et al, 2016). On the other hand, Turkish lentil landraces which take a significant role in breeding offer rich genetic sources and farmers in Turkey still cultivated on a small scale landrace preferred for their ability of adaptation to regional environmental conditions (Toklu et al, 2009).…”