The genetics of hard seed coat in the genus Lens

Legume Crops Phylogeny and Genetic Diversity for Science and Breeding

“…This was largely overcome in all domesticated grain legumes (Werker et al, 1979;Smartt, 1990;Weeden, 2007). A single recessive locus has been reported in lentil (Ladizinsky, 1985), while Weeden (2007) has identified two to three loci involved in pea seed dormancy, mediated by testa thickness and the structure of the testa surface. Among the legumes, unlike most cereal families (except for the millets), related species within a single genus have been domesticated at different stages, periods and places but with similar results in terms of cultivated crop characteristics.…”

The Chickpea, Summer Cropping, and a New Model for Pulse Domestication in the Ancient Near East

“…It appears, however, that in this respect as well, chickpea is an exception among its companion Near Eastern grain legumes. Pod dehiscence and hard seed coatmediated dormancy are typical features of wild Pisum elatius/humile and Lens orientalis, the wild progenitors of pea and lentil, respectively (Werker et al 1979;Ladizinsky 1985Ladizinsky , 1987. In wild C. reticulatum, however, pod dehiscence is not a problem as most pods are retained intact at full maturity (Ladizinsky 1979).…”

“…This suggests that with respect to the "classical" domestication traits, namely seed dispersal mode and hard seededness, no dramatic genetic changes were required at the earliest stages of bringing chickpea under cultivation. This contrasts with pea, lentil, and the vetches, in which both soft-seeded mutants and indehiscent pod types were required to ensure successful cropping (Ladizinsky 1985(Ladizinsky , 1987(Ladizinsky , 1989(Ladizinsky , 1993Zohary 1996).…”

Lentil

“…Reports on the inheritance of seed hardness in lentil are highly confl icting, particularly con sidering that the quantitative nature of the trait has been thoroughly demonstrated since 1990 in the closely related grain legume Glycine max. (Keim et al 1990 ); however, in lentil Ladizinsky ( 1985 ) intially described a single recessive gene in crosses with ssp. orientalis compared to a single dominant gene in crosses with L. ervoides, nonetheless thereafter it has persistently been stated to be a monogenic trait and seed hardness was designated the gene symbol Hsc which in addition is assured to be linked to the Pi locus for pod dehiscence (Sharma 2011 ).…”