Genetic Diversity for Morphological and Nutritional Traits in Global Lentil Genotypes for Biofortification Breeding in Ethiopia

Lentil is a nutritionally valuable legume, rich in essential minerals such as zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe). This study aims to evaluate the morphological diversity, mineral composition (Zn, Fe), and ash content of 64 lentil genotypes sourced from ICARDA, Aus, Argentina, Jordan and Ethiopian-released varieties. The experiment was carried out using a simple lattice design with two replications. The data were subjected to multivariate analyses, including principal component analysis (PCA) and clustering techniques, to evaluate genetic diversity and trait associations using different packages of R studio. The results revealed significant variation among genotypes in morphological traits, with some showing high Zn and Fe concentrations alongside desirable agronomic characteristics. The essential nutrients showed that iron levels ranged from 67.9 to 313.7mg/kg, zinc from 17.5 to 40mg/kg, ash from 1.5 to 4.45%, and protein from 17.5 to 26. Genotypes from ICARDA and Jordan exhibited larger thousand seed weight and seed yield comparatively. Hierarchical clustering was performed, and the dendrogram divided the genotypes into three groups using the ward method. Based on the principal component analysis, four principal components (PC1 to PC4) eigenvalues range from 1.04 to 3.5, collectively explaining 70.95% of the total variation. The first two principal components PC1 and PC2 contributed 35.02% and 13.09%, respectively.The findings highlight the importance of conservation and utilization of international lentil germplasm to enhance productivity as well as nutritional quality. Molecular and genomic tools must be utilized with conventional selection within future breeding schemes to facilitate the release of climate resistant and biofortified lentil varieties that will contribute to increased food and nutrition security.