Abstract
Lentil (Lens culinaris spp. culinaris) has a long history associated with the early civilizations 11,000 BP in southwestern Asia. The progenitor taxon is Lens culinaris spp. orientalis. The primary source of germplasm for lentil crop improvement is from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo, Syria, and other ex situ national collections. Typical of many crop species, lentil experienced a genetic bottleneck during domestication. Fortunately, many biotic and abiotic stress resistances have been identified and accessed from the wild Lens taxon held ex situ to expand the genetic diversity available for crop improvement. Lentil crop wild relatives (CWR) represent<5% of the world lentil collection of ICARDA and far less on a worldwide germplasm perspective. There is a great need for more collections of CWR and massive need for lentil preserved in situ and on farm for continued natural selection. Lentil genomics is in a nascent stage but this is changing rapidly and we anticipate a reference sequence in the next few years.
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