A joint European initiative is
proposed to evaluate currently and previously grown faba
bean varieties for characteristics of importance to
sustainable agriculture and to apply novel methods of
marker-assisted genetic improvement to construct enhanced
faba bean genotypes that will serve as parental lines for
future variety development. Priority will be given to the
combination of increased yield, digestibility,
nutritional quality and resistance to biotic and abiotic
stresses, thus allowing for the production of a
leguminous crop of high value in European crop rotations
of low input and stable yields. Since the climatological
conditions, farming systems and importance of abiotic and
biotic constraints vary from one area to another,
different ideotypes will be designed for specific
European regions. The general objective
of the work is to combine the application of
marker-assisted selection and conventional breeding
methods to develop enhanced faba bean genotypes with
characteristics of importance to sustainable agriculture across
Europe. To achieve this, the crop should be attractive
both to producers through the development of genotypes
resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses and to users
(humans or animals), through the development of plant
genotypes free of antinutritional factors (ANFs). The
resulting materials (cultivars or advanced lines) will
fit the needs of UE agriculture and will be suitable for
any further breeding methodology as required in the
future.
This
will be achieved by:
(i)
Evaluation of current and historic faba bean varieties
for characteristics of importance to sustainable
agriculture in order to define the desired phenotypes
suitable for each European area
(ii)
Development of new and reliable screening methods for the
most relevant biotic stresses in order to identify new
sources of resistance and characterise the resistance
mechanisms. The resulting germplasm will be of great
interest in future breeding programmes
(iii)
Identification and study of the inheritance of frost
resistance, winter hardiness and drought tolerance in
multilocation field trials and laboratory experiments.
The information gleaned from these studies could be of
major agronomic significance since winter beans have a
potential yield three times that of spring varieties
(iv)
Development of fast and cheap screening methods for
anti-nutritional factors (tannins and vicine-convicine)
in order to identify lines of interest with high protein
content, free of anti-nutritional compounds
(v)
Development of molecular maps in RILs populations of Vicia
faba in order to locate genes and QTLs controlling
resistance, nutritional factors and other yield
components. Studies on field stability of QTLs across
diverse locations and genetic backgrounds will allow the
development of specific markers (SCARs) for pyramiding
and rapid screening. The next step will be transferring
genes and QTLs to new recipient lines in order to develop
genetic materials that fit the defined European
ideotypes.
(vi)
Application of the Association Mapping
approach to identify the association between markers and
traits-phenotypes without using mapping populations
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