Identification, collection and agro-morphological characterization of lentil (Lens culinaris M.) landraces of Molise

The studies undertaken for this thesis were focused on the collection, characterization and conservation of agricultural food resources from the province of Isernia (Molise) Central Italy and the more detailed studies on lentil landrace populations and how the findings obtained could be used to inform and encourage their future on-farm conservation in an environmentally sustainable economy that remains appropriate to the land management practices of this environmentally sensitive region. The work goes on to explore ways of quantifying the intra-population variation within these landraces and includes a schematic as to how true breeding single plant selections may be developed as useful resources for future more detailed research and agronomic assessment. These studies are set within a wider discussion of the valuation of biodiversity within ecosystems services. The work is focused on two phases: 1) Collecting expeditions for ecotype crops from the area of Molise and the conservation of samples in the Germplasm Bank of Molise (BGMOL) of the University of Molise and 2) agro-morphological assessment of sub-population structure of three landrace populations of lentil. The initial phase involved collecting missions in the Province of Isernia (Molise, Italy) to collect representative crops from farmers together with descriptions of their primary characteristics where there is still significant cultivation of traditional crops using small scale husbandry as has been practised for many centuries. The second phase included a 6 month study period undertaken at the John Innes Centre in Norwich (UK) focused on the exploration of the agro-morphological variation and sub-population structure of landrace populations informed by genetic characterization for three local varieties of lentils from Capracotta, Conca Casale and Castelverrino (Scippa et al. 2008) grown in a glasshouse under controlled temperature and photoperiod. This period covered the complete life cycle growing of one generation of plants and was followed up on return to the University of Molise where the analysis of the data was undertaken. The work, presents a summary of two successful collecting missions to collect and capture details of ecoptyes and local varieties of a range of crops from the area of Molise and conserve seeds of many in a new local genebank. The work then takes a more detailed investigation into the agro-morphological variation of three ecoptye landrace populations of lentils and provides more detailed descriptions of their characteristics and differences than has existed to date that could be of great value in helping in the formal registration of some of them under the PDO (protected designation of origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Indication). The originality of the PhD thesis resides in the developments arising out of the use of a genetic approach to dissecting out the inherent variation within the ecotype landrace crops into sub-populations on the basis of seed morphological traits selected for their high heritability represents a significant departure to the approach usually taken with such material. This opens up a wide range of future research possibilities in the relatively short term that adds significantly to the value and understanding of the landraces in question. Examples are provided of variation identified within the ecotypes that may have value as new crop types with different characteristics (earlier and late flowering types) to those of the original populations and so offer more choice to farmers. The suggestion is made that the later flowering type might be suitable as a leguminous forage crop as well as a seed crop. The work therefore represents a significant starting point for further investigation into the further development of single plant selections into pure lines and their agronomic assessment against that of the initial landrace populations.