| 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 | 