GREEN SEED COAT COLOUR RETENTION IN LENTIL - University ...

desirable green seed coats. One problem within this preliminary evaluation was the
high LSD indicating high variability within genotypic treatments. More replications
grown at the same time in the same chamber would probably produce better results
with less variation.
Table 4.14 Mean values for content of total chlorophyll (mg/g), chlorophyll a
(mg/g), chlorophyll b (mg/g) content, and chlorophyll a:b ratio of the seed
coat for four green lentil genotypes grown on three separate occasions in the
phytotron.
Genotype Total chlorophyll Chlorophyll a Chlorophyll b Chlorophyll a:b
(mg/g) (mg/g) (mg/g) ratio
1294M-23 226.2 135.1 91.1 1.5
CDC Meteor 155.2 76.8 78.3 1.0
CDC Greenland 124.3 69.7 54.7 1.3
CDC Plato 8.9 4.8 4.1 1.2
LSD(0.05) 113.2 58.9 55.1 0.5
From the literature of other crops it was expected that chlorophyll content
could be a good indicator of desirable green seed coat colour after weathering. This
study indicated that in green lentil chlorophyll content is not the only factor
involved in identifying less desirable samples. For green pea, Cheng et al. (2004)
showed that differences in the chlorophyll a:b ratio could determine which lines will
have reduced cotyledon bleaching. In this study chlorophyll a:b ratio did not
significantly predict more desirable lines, although line 1294M-23 did have a high
ratio. In field pea Cheng et al. (2004) reported that chlorophyllase activity was
correlated to cotyledon bleaching. Chlorophyllase and peroxidase may be involved
in the differences of index scores among lentil samples as they have been found to
cause the loss of chlorophyll from cotyledons in canola (Johnson-Flanagan et al.,
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