SEVDA BABAYEVA1, ZEYNAL AKPAROV1, ADI DAMANIA2, VUSALA IZZATULLAYEVA1, GAMAR ASLANOVA3, MEHRAJ ABBASOV1,3 1Genetic Resources Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Baku, AZ 1106, Azerbaijan 2Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA 3Baku State University, Baku, AZ1148, Azerbaijan Abstract The drought tolerance of 96 lentil accessions collected from Central Asia and Caucasus (CAC) region was analysed through two sets of field experiment conditions: irrigated and rain-fed. Several yield components of these accessions were evaluated and compared by means of statistical analyses. Analysis of variance revealed significant variation among the genotypes between and within the two experimental conditions. Based on regression analysis, seed and pod number per plant had significant associations with seed yield per plant. Cluster analyses based on drought tolerance index (DTI) grouped accessions into five subgroups with different numbers of accessions in each group. Three groups out of five were characterized by high DTI values and high yields were observed in both, under irrigated and rainfed conditions. This collective group of genotypes demonstrated valuable germplasm traits under stress and may therefore serve as source of useful genes in breeding lentils for drought tolerance.
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