Genomics
Diagnostic marker for low vicine content in faba beans
The faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a traditional legume of the Old World. It is cultivated in temperate and semi-arid climates. Unripe and ripe seeds are used as food and feed additives. Its seed protein content (approx. 30%) and its high accumulation capacity of nitrogen from the air with the help of rhizobia symbiosis (>100kg N/ha) are significant.
In Germany, faba bean is nevertheless a less widespread arable crop; in 2024, the area under cultivation was around 60,500 ha (www.destatis.de). The reasons for this include its susceptibility to water shortage and the presence of anti-nutritive seed constituents: tannines and vicine/convicine (v/c) limit the utilization of faba beans as feed for non-ruminants. For this reason, more and more low-v/c varieties (e.g. Tiffany, Allison or Trumpet) of summer field beans are being developed, and marketable low- v/c winter faba beans are currently under development. The breeding of low-v/c varieties is made more difficult because no sufficiently suitable rapid phenotypic screening method has been developed for selecting for low-v/c content in the progeny. In the meantime, the complete genome of the common bean has been sequenced and marker-assisted breeding selection for vicine/convicine poverty is possible. However, this may still be subject to errors.
The gene (VC1) responsible for low-v/c content and the causing mutation are known. Our aim is to find a molecular marker that is as reliable as possible for the targeted breeding of new winter faba beans that are attractive for agriculture and to develop a simple diagnostic assay that can also be used in quality analysis, e.g. for batch testing.
