APPLICATION OF CLUSTER ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE THE BREEDING VALUE OF LENTILS (Lens culinaris Medik)

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study of agronomic characters of lentil, carried out in the fields of the A.I. Barayev Scientific and production center for grain farming JSC in 2021-2023. The objects of the study were 100 varieties from the genetic collections of lentil from the Institute of Plant Industry, ICARDA and foreign varieties (Turkey, Canada, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus). The Shyraily variety was adopted as a standard for large-seeded lentils, and the Krapinka variety – for small-seeded lentils. As a result of the research, sources of certain agronomic characters of lentils in the conditions of the Northern Kazakhstan were identified. Hierarchical clustering of the main components based on important agronomic characters revealed the presence of five groups with different breeding values. The most promising in practical and breeding terms are the samples belonging to the first cluster, which exhibit the highest expression of such quantitative characters as optimal yield and seed weight per plant. The second cluster includes productive and earlymaturing samples, while the samples in the third cluster can be used as sources of high protein content. Lentil samples from the fourth and fifth clusters may serve as promising parent material for the development of new lentil varieties.