Genetic and Environmental Variation on Mineral Nutrient Concentration in Pea and Lentil Seed

Abstract

Current food supply is expected to be insufficient to support the growing population both in quantity and nutritional quality; therefore, the need to breed for higher yield and greater nutritional quality is urgent. Twenty-five dry pea genotypes, 25 Turkish red lentil and 23 green lentil genotypes were tested across different locations of North Dakota to quantify the nutrient concentration and to characterize the genotype and the environmental factors affecting nutrient concentration. Significant genotypic, environmental and genotype-by-environment interaction was present for Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, P and Zn analyzed in dry pea and lentil. A range of correlations among and/or between mineral elements and seed yield parameters was observed. This suggests that breeding for quantitative trait like mineral elements is possible through conventional breeding however; multi-location testing is very crucial for analyzing the genetic and environmental effect on mineral concentration in the seeds.