Legume Generation Report 12
Progressing the breeding of lentil
Elizabeth Ninou, Ioannis Mylonas, Donal Murphy-Bokern, Udo Hennenkaemper, Patrice Jeanson, Valerio di Vittori, Roberto Papa, Tania Gioia, Ulrike Lohwasser,
This report sets out the progress made in boosting the breeding of lentil in the first 24 months of the Legume Generation project. It describes the establishment and progress of the Lentil Innovation Community (IC); the harmonisation of phenotyping protocols across Europe; the completion of the first cycle of multi-environment field trials; the launch of the second validation cycle; and the initiation of breeding tools and early demonstration activities.
The Lentil IC brings together partners from Greece, Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands in a coordinated platform for data, seed, and knowledge exchange. This collaboration with germplasm mainly from IPK, ICARDA, and information and lines from other previous projects such as INCREASE, Linsel, and other initiatives was assembled to broaden the narrow genetic base of lentil cultivated in Europe. Key breeding priorities included yield, drought tolerance, earliness, seed quality, yield stability, cold tolerance, and disease resistance.
