DOI: 10.5061/dryad.s1rn8pkj4
title: Data from: Neither yield nor phenology scale from single row to whole plot in chickpea and lentil

description: Reliable phenotyping is critical for crop improvement. Some traits such as
 herbicide tolerance are more likely to scale from plant to crop than
 others such as yield. Here we compared phenology, yield and its components
 in two arrangements - single rows and whole plots - for 10 chickpea and 10
 lentil cultivars in 11 (chickpea) and 10 (lentil) Australian environments
 resulting from the combination of location, season, and sowing date. The
 cultivars were characterised for key genetic loci for phenology: Elf3a, GI
 and the FT gene cluster in chickpea, and GWAS-chr2 and the FTb gene
 cluster in lentil. Across environments, yield of chickpea ranged from 33
 to 268 g per lineal m (g m-1) in single rows and 5 to 77 g m-1 in whole
 plots, and yield of lentil ranged from 20 to 174 g m-1 in single rows and
 9 to 104 g m-1 in whole plots. Across environments and genotypes, time to
 flowering was later in 207 of 275 chickpea whole plots compared to single
 rows and in 175 out of 234 lentil whole plots compared with single rows.
 In both chickpea and lentil, flowering and podding varied with the
 interaction between genotype, arrangement, and environment, resulting in
 altered genotypic rankings between single row and whole plot within and
 between environments. Yield components were variably affected by the
 three-way interaction; biomass was the only trait showing no interaction
 in either crop. Broad sense heritability of seed size fell from 0.60 in
 whole plots to 0.37 in single rows for chickpea, and from 0.87 to 0.62 in
 lentil. Traits showed variable and sometimes contrary correlations with
 yield depending on crop arrangement. In chickpea, early flowering and the
 early allele ELF3a were associated with harvest index and yield in whole
 plots. In lentil, the early allele of FTb was negatively associated with
 time to flowering and podding in whole plots and with the phenological
 differences between arrangements. Chickpea and lentil genotypes that were
 more responsive to crop arrangement were lower yielding in whole plots. We
 highlight the need to understand scaling for agronomically important
 traits to avoid wasteful or counterproductive phenotyping and breeding
 efforts.
description: With both lentil and chickpea, we established factorial
 experiments combining 10 genotypes, two arrangements, single row and whole
 plot, and 12 environments resulting from the combination of location,
 sowing date, and season (Table 1).  Out of the 12 target environments,
 comparisons between whole plot and single rows were made in 10
 environments for lentil and 11 for chickpea; single row crops failed in
 the late sowing at Gatton 2021 and waterlogging caused crop failure after
 flowering in the late-sown lentil at Kapunda 2022.
 Genotypes vary in phenology and have been characterised for
 selected alleles associated with phenological development (Gimenez et al.,
 2024, Lake et al., 2024). Table 1 summarises the allelic compositions of
 each genotype using a binary code where 1 is the early allele and 0 is the
 late allele, for <em>Elf3a, GI</em> and a deletion at the
 <em>FT</em> gene cluster in chickpea and for a GWAS-identified
 SNP on chromosome 2 and the <em>FTb</em> gene cluster in
 lentil. Other regions in lentil are not represented here as they did not
 vary among genotypes. Crops were established and
 maintained using best local practices to manage nutrition, weeds, and
 pests. Supplemental irrigation was applied when soil moisture was
 insufficient for germination. Treatments were randomised in a complete
 block design with three replicates. Lentil was sown at 120 pl
 m<sup>-2</sup>, and chickpea at 50 pl
 m<sup>-2</sup> for desi and 30 pl m<sup>-2</sup>
 for kabuli. For both crops, single rows were 4 m long and 1 m between rows
 (2 m in Gatton and Forrest Hill) and plots were 4 m long x 6 rows spaced
 25 cm at Kapunda, 5 m long x 6 rows spaced 22 cm at Merredin, and 5.5 m
 long x 4 rows spaced 35 cm for chickpea and 30cm for lentil at Gatton and
 Forest Hill. Variation in row spacing reflects local practices.
 <em>Measurements</em> Phenology
 was monitored 2 – 3 times per week in the centre rows of each plot and
 along the single row to determine the timing of 50% of plants reaching:
 emergence, flowering, podding, end of flowering and maturity (Lake et al.,
 2024, Sadras et al., 2019). Chronological time was converted to thermal
 time (<sup>o</sup>Cd) based on daily average temperature minus
 a base temperature of 0 °C (Summerfield et al., 1985).
 In Kapunda and Merredin (Table 1) we measured yield, biomass,
 harvest index (seed weight/biomass), seed number and seed weight from 2-m
 samples taken at maturity. Daily weather data including radiation,
 rainfall, reference evapotranspiration, and maximum and minimum
 temperature were obtained from the nearest weather station (Table
 1). <em>Data analysis</em>
 We used ANOVA (Genstat 20th edition) to test for the effects of
 genotype, environment, arrangement and their interaction on phenology,
 yield, and yield components. Best linear unbiased predictors, phenotypic
 correlations and heritability were calculated with META-R (Multi
 Environment Trial Analysis with R for Windows) Version 6.0. Principal
 component analysis was conducted using GraphPad Prism version 10.0.0 for
 Windows (GraphPad Software, Boston, Massachusetts USA, www.graphpad.com).
description: # Data from: Neither yield nor phenology scale from single row to whole
 plot in chickpea and lentil
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s1rn8pkj4](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s1rn8pkj4) ## Description of the data and file structure Lentil and chickpea were grown in the field using 10 varieties of each to determine the effect of planting arrangement (single rows and whole plots) on phenotype. With both lentil and chickpea, we established factorial experiments combining 10 genotypes, two arrangements, single row and whole plot, and 12 environments resulting from the combination of location, sowing date, and season.  Out of the 12 target environments, comparisons between whole plot and single rows were made in 10 environments for lentil and 11 for chickpea; single row crops failed in the late sowing at Gatton 2021 and waterlogging caused crop failure after flowering in the late-sown lentil at Kapunda 2022. Crops were established and maintained using best local practices to manage nutrition, weeds, and pests. Supplemental irrigation was applied when soil moisture was insufficient for germination. Treatments were randomised in a complete block design with three replicates. Lentil was sown at 120 pl m-2, and chickpea at 50 pl m-2 for desi and 30 pl m-2 for kabuli. For both crops, single rows were 4 m long and 1 m between rows (2 m in Gatton and Forrest Hill) and plots were 4 m long x 6 rows spaced 25 cm at Kapunda, 5 m long x 6 rows spaced 22 cm at Merredin, and 5.5 m long x 4 rows spaced 35 cm for chickpea and 30cm for lentil at Gatton and Forest Hill. Variation in row spacing reflects local practices. ### Files and variables #### File: 24\_12\_20\_Data\_for\_Dryad.xlsx **Description:** Measured traits for lentil and chickpea across environments, with 10 genotypes and two planting arrangements (whole plot and single rows). Phenology was measured in all environments while yield component traits were only measured in a subset of environments. Blank cells are missing data. ##### Variables * Yield (m-1) * Biomass (m-1) * Harvest index (biomass/yield) * Seed number (m-1) * 100 seed weight (g) * Thermal time from emergence to flowering (base temperature of 0oC) * Thermal time from emergence to podding (base temperature of 0oC)