Abstract
In comparison to other annual forage legumes, such as pea (Pisum sativum L.), advances in breeding vetches (Vicia spp.) are rather modest. One of the main obstacles in increasing the cultivation area under vetches is uncertain seed production, mostly due to their indeterminate stem growth and non-uniform maturity, with the genes controlling these important traits still unattested. In contrast, in wild populations of common vetch (V. sativa L.) the genes have been identified, isolated in this study, and mutant plants with more than usual two pods per node tested. Crossing these mutant genotypes with wild-type ones demonstrated that the number of pods in this vetch species is controlled by two genes, orthologs to FN and FNA in pea. If both genes are recessive, a plant will have more than two flowers per each node and, depending on not yet clarified environmental factors, more than two pods per node. Developing vetch cultivars with more than two pods per node may be one of the solutions for enhancing seed production in this crop.
Highlights
The genus vetch (Vicia L.) comprises more than 100 species, with bitter vetch (V. ervilia (L.) Willd.), faba bean (V. faba L.), Hungarian (V. pannonica Crantz), common (V. sativa L.) and hairy (V. villosa Roth) vetches as the economically most important (Mihailović et al, 2006)
It is noteworthy that the first known extraction of ancient DNA in the world was done from 3,200 years old charred bitter vetch seeds (Jovanović et al, 2011)
The forage dry matter yields in all three cultivars were lower than in a previously carried out study comprising more common vetch genotypes in the same environment, with an average forage dry matter yield of 8.8 t/ha-1 (Mikić et al 2014)
Summary
The genus vetch (Vicia L.) comprises more than 100 species, with bitter vetch (V. ervilia (L.) Willd.), faba bean (V. faba L.), Hungarian (V. pannonica Crantz), common (V. sativa L.) and hairy (V. villosa Roth) vetches as the economically most important (Mihailović et al, 2006). Vetches have been present in human diets since the age of Neanderthal man, as witnessed by fossilised macroremains from modern Iraq 46,000 years old (Henry et al, 2011). Bitter vetch and faba bean are considered ones of the first domesticated plant species in the world (Tanno and Willcox, 2006). It is noteworthy that the first known extraction of ancient DNA (aDNA) in the world was done from 3,200 years old charred bitter vetch seeds (Jovanović et al, 2011). Faba bean is regarded almost exclusively as a grain legume crop, is not colloquially counted among the vetchcrops. Most cultivated vetch species are multifunctional crops and may be used as fresh forage, forage dry matter, forage meal, grain, straw, as well as for grazing (Mihailović et al, 2004). Vetches are most widely grown in Turkey, Russian Federation, Spain, Ethiopia and Australia, with 90,000 ha, 75,463 ha, 75,000 ha, 73,314 ha and 48,000 ha, respectively (FAOSTAT, 2014)
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