Grain nutritional and antioxidant profiling of diverse lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus) genetic resources revealed genotypes with high nutritional value.

The lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus ssp. Culinaris) is a self-pollinating, diploid (2n = 2X = 14) crop with a genome size of 4 Gbp. The present study was conducted to provide a database for the evaluation of lentil antioxidant capacity, nutritional quality, and biochemical attributes. For these purposes, lentil germplasm, including 100 exotic and local genotypes from different agro-climatic zones of Pakistan, was collected. Significant variation (p < 0.05) was found among the genotypes under investigation using the Tukey HSD test. Ascorbate peroxidase was highest in ALTINOPARK (2,465 Units/g s. wt.), catalase in LPP 12110 (5,595 Units/g s. wt.), superoxide dismutase in LPP 12105 (296.75 Units/g s. wt.), and peroxidase in NIAB Masoor 2002 (3,170 Units/g s. wt.). Furthermore, NLM 15016 had a maximum total antioxidant capacity of 15.763 mg/g s. wt. The maximum values of total soluble sugars (83.93 mg/g. s. wt.) and non-reducing sugars (74.79 mg/g. s. wt.) were noticed in NLM 15015. The highest reducing sugars were detected in ILL 8006 (45.68 mg/g. s. wt.) ascorbic acid in LPP 12182 (706 µg/g s. wt.), total phenolic content in NLI 17003 (54,600 µM/g s. wt.), and tannins in NLI 17057 (24,563 µM/g s. wt.). The highest chlorophyll a (236.12 µg/g s. wt.), chlorophyll b (317 µg/g s. wt.), total chlorophyll (552.58 µg/g s. wt.), and lycopene (10.881 µg/g s. wt.) were found in NLH 12097. Maximum total carotenoids were revealed in the local approved variety Markaz 2009 (17.89 µg/g s. wt.). Principal component analysis (PCA), correlation analysis (Pearson's test), and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) were performed to detect the extent of variation in genotypes. In cluster analysis, all genotypes were categorized into three clusters. Cluster II genotypes showed remarkable divergence with cluster III. According to PCA, the contribution of PC-I regarding tested nutritional parameters toward variability was the highest (39.75%) and indicated positive factor loading for the tested nutritional and biochemical parameters. In conclusion, genotype X 2011S 33-34-32 can be used by the food industry in making pasta, multigrain bread, and snacking foods due to its high protein content for meat alternative seekers. Identified genotypes with high nutritional attributes can be utilized to improve quality parameters in the respective lentil breeding lines.

Elevated ozone phytotoxicity ameliorations in mung bean {Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek} by foliar nebulization of silicic acid and ascorbic acid.

The present work provides an insight into the development of biochemical adaptations in mung beans against ozone (O3) toxicity. The study aims to explore the O3 stress tolerance potential of mung bean genotypes under exogenous application of growth regulators. The seeds of twelve mung bean genotypes were grown in plastic pots under controlled conditions in the glasshouse. Six treatments, control (ambient ozone level 40-45 ppb), ambient O3 with ascorbic acid, ambient ozone with silicic acid, elevated ozone (120 ppb), elevated O3 with ascorbic acid (10 mM), and elevated ozone with silicic acid (0.1 mM) were applied. The O3 fumigation was carried out using an O3 generator. The results revealed that ascorbic acid and silicic acid application decreased the number of plants with foliar O3 injury symptoms in different degrees, i.e., zero, first, second, third, and fourth degrees; whereas 0-4 degree symptoms represent, no symptoms, symptoms occupying < 1/4, 1/4-1/2, 1/2-3/4, and > 3/4 of the total foliage area, respectively. Application of ascorbic acid and silicic acid also prevented the plants from the negative effects of O3 in terms of fresh as well as dry matter production, leaf chlorophyll, carotenoids, soluble proteins and ascorbic acid, proline, and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents. Overall, silicic acid application proved more effective in reducing the negative effects of O3 on mung bean genotypes as compared to that of the ascorbic acid. Three mung bean genotypes (NM 20-21, NM-2006, and NM-2016) were identified to have a better adaptive mechanism for O3 toxicity tolerance and may be good candidates for future variety development programs.

Exploring the Genetic Divergence in Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) Germplasm Using Multiple Molecular Marker Systems.

Molecular markers are considered powerful tools to identify the potential genetic variation. Forty-two RAPD, ISSR and SSR markers were employed to characterize 21 mungbean genotypes. RAPD primers produced 79 polymorphic bands while ISSR and SSR markers amplified 21 and 6 polymorphic bands, respectively. The range for minimum and maximum number of bands was 3-13, 3-9 and 1-2 and average alleles per loci were 8.17, 4.3 and 1 for RAPD, ISSR and SSR, respectively. Highest polymorphism percentage was 100% for both ISSR and SSR while 80% for RAPD markers. The SSR-VR-303 and ISSR-UBC-810 had highest PIC values (0.44, 0.72) indicating the more discriminating power of these primers for diversity analysis. RAPD primer OPA-7 with maximum PIC value (0.26) resulted in good amplification. Jaccard's similarity coefficient ranged between 0.50 to 1, 0.64 to 1 and 0.75 to 1 for SSR, ISSR and RAPD primers, respectively, indicating less genetic divergence among studied material. Dendrogram based on Unweighted Pair Group Method of Arithmetic Means (UPGMA) grouped mungbean genotypes into two to three major clusters for different marker system with up to 100% genetic relatedness among different cultivars. Molecular genetic divergence identified can be utilized to widen the genetic base in mungbean breeding programs.

Pre-breeding of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) for herbicide resistance through seed mutagenesis.

Lentil is a poor competitor of weeds and its sensitivity to herbicides is a major hurdle for large scale production. The present study was conducted to select herbicide resistant lentil genotypes through seed mutagenesis. Seeds of three advanced lentil genotypes (LPP 11001, LPP 11100 and LPP 11116) were treated with two different concentrations of ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS; 0.1 and 0.2%), hydrazine hydrate (HH; 0.02 and 0.03%) and sodium azide (SA; 0.01 and 0.02%) to develop M1 seed. The M2 was screened against two herbicides including Ally Max 28.6% SG (X = 34.58 g/ha and 1.5X = 51.87 g/ha) and Atlantis 3.6% WG (X = 395.2 g/ha and 1.5X = 592.8 g/ha) using the following three screening methods: post plant emergence (PPE), pre-plant incorporation (PPI) and seed priming (SP). Data were recorded on survival index and survival percentage from each experimental unit of every population. Plants in all populations were categorized following their reaction to herbicides. The newly developed populations showed greater variation for herbicide resistance when compared to their progenitors. Phenotypic traits were significantly reduced in all the screening environments. Overall, 671 herbicide resistant mutants were selected from all testing environments. The seeds from selected plants were re-mutagenized at 150 Gy of gamma radiation and evaluated against higher dose of herbicides. This allowed selection of 134 herbicide resistant mutants. The selected mutants are useful germplasm for herbicide resistance breeding of lentil.