PLANT CELL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus subsp. culinaris) is produced in Morocco under rainfall conditions in semi-arid areas. As a food legume, lentil crop plays a great role in increasing soil efficiency and food security for low-income farmers. However, its mean yield remains low and instable mainly because of climate change. The current investigation aimed to identify among eight released varieties, those having wide adaptation with high and stable yield performance across nine variable climatic conditions using combining analysis of AMMI-GGE biplot. Experiment trials were conducted in three rainfall locations during three growing years. ANOVA analysis revealed a significant effect of environments (E) (68.7%) in terms of locations (16.4%), years (19.5%) and location by year interaction (32.9%); and of the interaction of genotype by environment (GE) (13.4%) on grain yield and yield components. Stepwise multiple linear regression method identified total grains per plant (GrPL) as the direct determining yield components across environments with variable contribution magnitude ranging from 62% (E₃) to 97% (E₄). Thus, GrPL might be used as desirable selection criterion in lentil breeding program. AMMI analysis explained the genotype difference responses across environments. The two first interaction principal components (IPCA-1) and (IPCA-2) explained respectively 57.5% and 21.3% of the interaction of GE. The GGE biplot analysis identified two mega-environments (E₂, E_5, E₉) and (E₁, E₃, E₄, E₇) representing highland, semi-arid and favorable rainfall environments where Bichette and Bakria varieties exhibited respectively wide adaptation. Varieties L₂₄ and Chakouf exhibited a specific adaptation respectively to favorable (E₆) and semi-arid (E₈) rainfall environments. Considering stability analysis, yield performance of L₅₆ and Zaaria were contemplated as stables.