Screening of Vicia faba accessions to abiotic and biotic stresses under field conditions

In recent years, climate change has become increasingly visible and extreme weather events, like heat waves, droughts and floods, are expected to become more frequent, intense and unpredictable.
In protected cultivation (greenhouses, polytunnels), the climate can be controlled to avoid the impact of drought, heat, salinity, cold, or pathogen infection, etc., on plant growth and yield under field conditions.
Faba bean (Vicia faba) is one of the oldest vegetables in the world and is the fourth most important winter legume after chickpea, dried peas and lentils.
The Vegetable Research Development Station Buzau, Romania, has started a breeding program on Vicia faba, the main objective of which is the development of improved cultivars with an adequate resistance/tolerance to biotic as well as abiotic stresses.
Accordingly, we evaluated quality and yield traits of ten accessions (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, A9, A10) and screened for resistance/tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
The accessions were phenotyped for two successive years, 2020-2021, and ranked for abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, from 1 (highly tolerant) to 5 (highly susceptible). Considerable variation was found within the studied accessions.
The data collected showed that accessions A4, A7, A6, A3 and A8 were least affected by biotic stresses.
The accessions A4 and A7 were selected as highly tolerant against Botrytis fabae attack, with less than 10% damage to foliage.
These resources could be used in future breeding programs to improve resistance of biotic and abiotic stresses in faba bean.

XXXI International Horticultural Congress (IHC2022): International Symposium on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Horticultural Genetic Resources

E. Barcanu, O.L. Agapie, I. Gherase, B.E. Tănase, G. Dobre, C. Vînătoru

climate change, faba bean, resistance, tolerance

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2023.1384.50