RESUMO
Understanding phenology, its genetics and agronomic consequences, is critical for crop adaptation. Here we aim to (i) characterize lentil response to photoperiod with a focus on five loci: the lentil ELF3 orthologue Sn, two loci linked to clusters of lentil FT orthologues, and two loci without candidates in chromosomes 2 and 5 (Experiment 1: 36 lines, short and long days in a phytotron), and (ii) establish the phenology-yield relationship (Experiment 2: 25 lines, 11 field environments). A vintage perspective, where we quantify time trends in phenotype over three decades of breeding, links both experiments. Yield increased linearly from older to newer varieties at 29 kg ha-1 year-1 or 1.5% year-1, correlated negatively with flowering time in both winter- and summer-rainfall regimes, and decoupled from biomass in favourable environments. Time to flowering shortened from older to newer varieties at -0.56% year-1 in the field, and -0.42% year-1 (short days) and -0.99% year-1 (long days) in the phytotron. Early-flowering lines of diverse origin carried multiple early alleles for the five loci, indicating that at least some of these loci affect phenology additively. Current germplasm primarily features the early-flowering haplotype for an FTb cluster region, hence the potential to increase phenological diversity with yield implications.
