Abstract
Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) Algerian accessions represent an essential source of traits of interest for crop improvement, especially for tackling climate change, because their genetic background and potential have not been well studied. The purpose of this research was to assess the genetic variability of 14 Algerian faba bean accessions by means of 10 agro-morphological traits and 7 simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs). ANOVA analysis showed a large significant phenotypic variation in fruit setting (FS), seed length (SL), seed width (SW), and 100-seeds weight (HSW), which arose as the main discriminant characters as revealed by principal component analysis (PCA). In addition, SSR analysis identified a total of twenty different alleles within our collection with a mean of 2.85 alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.32 to 0.58, with a mean of 0.44. Observed heterozygosity (Ho) ranged from 0.57 to 1.00 with a mean of 0.72, while the expected one (He) varied from 0.42 to 0.67, reaching a mean of 0.57. Based on agro-morphological as well as molecular data, the 14 accessions were not clustered according to the geographical pattern, as also confirmed by principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Moreover, AMOVA highlighted that most of the overall genetic variation within our collection was the result of strong differentiation among accessions (84%). Finally, the Mantel test revealed that there was no substantial correlation between the molecular and agro-morphological traits (r = −0.025, p > 0.05). These findings represent a first step toward faba been breeding programs establishment in Algeria, indicating that our collection exhibited optimal agro- and molecular diversity to identify specific traits useful in Mediterranean environment.
Highlights
These values highlighted the wide phenotypic variation in the Algerian faba bean germplasm for number of pods per plant (NPPL), NF, pod length (PL), and number of seeds per pod (NSP), whereas the lowest variations were observed for seed width (SW), fruit setting (FS), and days to 50% flowering (DF)
Genetic diversity is essential for the creation of new varieties with interesting characteristics
The current study is a starting point toward the development of breeding and research on the genetic diversity of Algerian faba bean accessions considering the results obtained from the molecular markers and the main important agro-morphological traits
Summary
Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is an essential winter cultivated crop. This legume originated from the Mediterranean-West Asia region [1] and attracts considerable interest due to its abundance of biomass, high yield potential, contribution to soil improvement through its ability to fix nitrogen and its seeds high protein content [2]. Faba bean production in the world reached 5.43 million tons annually from a total cultivated area of 2.57 million hectares, with China being the leading producer, with approximately 1,740,945 tons [3]. In Algeria, faba bean is the most widely grown food legume [4], the annual production of which has reached 55,272 tons from total cultivated area of 41,451 hectares [3]. Its seeds are used dry or fresh in traditional Algerian cuisine and are mainly consumed as homemade consumption and subsistence
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