Influence of environment on seed soluble carbohydrates in selected lentil cultivars

High concentrations of raffinose-family oligosaccharides (RFOs) in lentils cause stomach discomfort and reduce lentil quality for human consumption. To develop strategies for lentil quality improvement, we investigated variability, heritability and effects of environmental conditions on the content and composition of soluble carbohydrates in lentil seeds. Analyses of variance showed that cultivar and environment and their interaction had significant effects on the sugar content in lentil seeds. Glucose and sucrose contents of lentil cultivars ranged from 0.02 to 0.06 g and 1.22–1.67 g 100 g−1 lentil meal, respectively. Total RFO content of lentil cultivars ranged from 4.5 to 5.5 mmol 100 g−1 lentil seed meal. In all lentil cultivars, RFO content was positively correlated with glucose and sucrose contents. Analysis of RFO profiles by high performance size exclusion chromatography (HP-SEC) showed that stachyose was the major RFO in all lentil cultivars followed by raffinose and verbascose, respectively. The broad sense heritability of sucrose and RFO estimated from the analyses of variance components was 0.89 and 0.85, respectively. Lentil seed RFO content is a highly heritable trait, thus making it amenable to genetic improvement to meet consumer preferences.