Capturing Variation in Lens spp.

Limited genetic diversity in cultivated lentil (L. culinaris) hampers its ability to adapt to new environments. Its wild relatives represent an important source of variability for use in the breeding program to expand genetic diversity. Our research aims to investigate the biodiversity in the wild lentil species, and to understand the genetic basis of adaptation to different environments in the genus Lens.

Based on targeted re-sequencing of gene space, exome capture has been shown to be a powerful genomic tool, especially for species with large and complex genomes. We recently generated sequence reads from the exome capture for all seven Lens species (L. culinaris, L. orientalis, L. tomentosus, L. odemensis, L. lamottei, L. ervoides, and L. nigricans). The reads were mapped and aligned to the reference lentil genome (v1.2). As an initial screening process, the genetic imprints of domestication will be investigated by quantifying the genetic loss due to bottlenecks associated with domestication events. Variants will be called from the whole exome space and used to survey a range of domestication- and adaptation-related genes. We will mainly focus on genes regulating traits such as seed dormancy, pod shattering, photoperiod, light quality response, and temperature response. The results from this research will set a strong foundation for marker development which will help introduce genetic diversity into the cultivated lentil species but avoid some of the deleterious wild alleles.