Zooming into the genomic vicinity of the major locus for vicine and convicine in faba bean (Vicia faba L.)

The versatility of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) seed as valuable protein feed is hampered by its relatively high level of the compounds vicine and convicine (VC), which are antinutritive factors in poultry and further non-ruminant feed. The objective here was to develop the first-ever genetically low-VC winter faba bean. Hence, the low VC allele vc-, that should be the basis of a known, major locus for VC, need verification and molecular identification and be based on appropriately developed DNA-markers; the low VC feature awaited its transfer into the high-performing winter faba bean germplams. Based on bi-parental F2-families and isogenic lines, we thus developed highly useful SNP markers exploiting transcriptomic data. Furthermore, we fine-mapped and, based on synteny to Medicago truncatula and Cicer arietinum, we identified a candidate gene for the VC locus. A novel, genetically low VC winter faba bean population was bred. The path is now well-prepared for further marker-based breeding progress.