Geographic Patterns of Diversity of Cultivated Lentil Germplasm Collected 
from Pakistan, as Assessed by Seed Protein Assays 

Tayyaba Sultana1, Abdul Ghafoor2*, and Muhammad Ashraf1

1Department of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
2Plant Genetic Resources Programme, National Agricultural Research Centre, Islamabad, Pakistan

*e-mail: ghafoor59pk@yahoo.com

Received July 15, 2005; revision accepted February 15, 2006

Seed protein profiles were studied in 144 lentil accessions intensively collected from all over Pakistan. Heterogeneous populations were isolated on the basis of SDS-PAGE, and 13 polymorphic protein peptides were found, representing almost all the variation reported so far in lentil. The low diversity of accessions from the Northern Area and North Western Frontier Province, the most geographically diverse areas, suggested the need for more exploration so that the maximum genetic diversity of the areas can be truly represented. Clusters based on agro-ecological zones did not prove adequate for evaluation of lentil resources, whereas 63 of 108 accessions (58.3%) were grouped together by altitude and provincial distribution. The study confirmed the wealth of phenotypic divergence in the local lentil. A small sample of accessions from a particular region might not reflect the actual diversity within that region. Samples representing total diversity in particular countries or regions should be evaluated, so that a representative rather than a random set of accessions can be included in investigations of diversity on regional or continental scales. As Pakistan is in the vicinity of the centre of diversity of lentil, high variation of various parameters is expected, and that can be found only if a complete set of germplasm is studied.

Key words: Lens culinaris, cluster analysis, genetic diversity, landraces, SDS-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis.