Suchergebnisse

The grain legume (pulse) faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is grown world-wide as protein source for food and feed, but at the same time faba bean offers ecosystem services such as renewable inputs of nitrogen (N) into crops and soil via biological N2 fixation, and a diversification of cropping systems. Even though the global average grain yield has almost doubled during the past 50 years the total area sown to faba beans has declined by 56% over the same period. The season-to-season fluctuations in grain yield of faba bean and the progressive replacement of traditional farming systems, which utilized legumes to provide N to maintain soil N fertility, with industrialized, largely cereal-based systems that are heavily reliant upon fossil fuels (= N fertilizers, heavy mechanization) are some of the explanations for this decline in importance. Past studies of faba bean in cropping systems have tended to focus on the effect of faba bean as a pre-crop in mainly cereal intensive rotations, whereas similar information on the effect of preceding crops on faba bean is lacking. Faba bean has the highest average reliance on N2 fixation for growth of the major cool season grain legumes. As a consequence the N benefit for following crops is often high, and several studies have demonstrated substantial savings (up to 100-200 kg N ha-1) in the amount of N fertilizer required to maximize the yield of crops grown after faba bean. There is, however, a requirement to evaluate the potential risks of losses of N from the plant-soil system associated with faba bean cropping via nitrate leaching or emissions of N2O to the atmosphere as a consequence of the rapid mineralization of N from its N-rich residues. It is important to develop improved preventive measures, such as catch crops, intercropping, or no-till technologies, in order to provide farmers with strategies to minimize any possible undesirable effects on the environment that might result from their inclusion of faba bean in cropping system. This needs to be combined with research that can lead to a reduction in the current extent of yield variability, so that faba bean crop may prove to be a key component of future arable cropping systems where declining supplies and high prices of fossil energy are likely to constrain the affordability and use of fertilizers. This will help address the increasing demand by consumers and governments for agriculture to reduce its impact on the environment and climate through new, more sustainable approaches to food production. The aims of this paper are to review the role of faba bean in global plant production systems, the requirements for optimal faba bean production and to highlight the beneficial effects of faba bean in cropping systems.

Rispail, N. et al. ; Faba bean is an excellent candidate crop to provide nitrogen input into temperate agricultural systems. However, its growth is hampered by several factors including environmental stresses and the presence of anti-nutritional factors. To solve these limitations, breeding programs have been initiated that were successful for monogenic traits but not so for multigenic traits. The large genome size of faba bean has slowed down breeding processes. Several other legumes have emerged as model legumes including Medicago truncatula, Lotus japonicus, Glycine max and Pisum sativum. The establishment of these models has already boosted our understanding of important processes such as the nitrogen-fixing symbiotic interaction. The high level of synteny and collinearity existing between legumes makes possible the transfer of key knowledge from model legumes to faba bean. Here we review the most recent knowledge gained from model legumes on grain quality, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, nitrogen-fixing symbiosis and how this knowledge can be employed for faba bean breeding. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. ; This work was funded in part by the European Union Grain Legumes Integrated Project (FOOD-CT-2004-506223), the Spanish Ministry of Education (AGL2005-0274/AGR, AGL2008-01239/AGR), the Australian Research Council for Centre of Excellence funding, UQ for strategic funds from the VC, DVCR and BACS Faculty. ; Peer Reviewed

Flores, F. et al. ; Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a cool season grain legume whose acreage has constantly declined in traditional producer countries as it has been replaced by more productive cereal crops. However, faba bean is still considered to have great potential as rainfed crop. In order to satisfy the renewed interest in faba bean cultivation yield stability should be improved by exploiting different germplasm types and sowing seasons.In order to understand of genotype by environment interactions and to compare cultivar performance over years and locations a spring faba bean network was established with 20 cultivars grown over three crop seasons at 13 contrasting locations covering most of Europe. Analysis was performed by heritability-adjusted genotype plus genotype × environment interaction (HA-GGE) biplot analysis. HA-GGE biplot analyses identified that the effect of genotype by environment interaction was higher than the effect of genotypes, allowing identification of three mega-environments, namely Continental, Oceanic, and Mediterranean, in which cultivar performed differently. This supports the need for specific breeding for each specific geoclimatic area. Espresso was the highest yielding cultivar, being also highly stable over the Oceanic and Continental mega-environments. Cultivars Fuego, Hobbit and SR-1060 had also good yield but with a moderate unstability in both Oceanic and Continental mega-environments. Baraca and Alameda yielded poorly at all environments although were the best yielders at Mediterranean locations. Environments as Sumperk and Premesques were identified as the best core test locations for Continental and Oceanic mega-environments, respectively, being the locations in which best genotypes could be most easily identified. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. ; Financial support by the European Union EUFABA project (ref. QLK5-CT2002-02307) is acknowledged. ; Peer Reviewed

Faba bean is an important food crop worldwide. However, progress in faba bean genomics lags far behind that of model systems due to limited availability of genetic and genomic information. Using the Illumina platform the faba bean transcriptome from leaves of two lines (29H and Vf136) subjected to Ascochyta fabae infection have been characterized. De novo transcriptome assembly provided a total of 39,185 different transcripts that were functionally annotated, and among these, 13,266 were assigned to gene ontology against Arabidopsis. Quality of the assembly was validated by RT-qPCR amplification of selected transcripts differentially expressed. Comparison of faba bean transcripts with those of better-characterized plant genomes such as Arabidopsis thaliana, Medicago truncatula and Cicer arietinum revealed a sequence similarity of 68.3%, 72.8% and 81.27%, respectively. Moreover, 39,060 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and 3,669 InDels were identified for genotyping applications. Mapping of the sequence reads generated onto the assembled transcripts showed that 393 and 457 transcripts were overexpressed in the resistant (29H) and susceptible genotype (Vf136), respectively. Transcripts involved in plant-pathogen interactions such as leucine rich proteins (LRR) or plant growth regulators involved in plant adaptation to abiotic and biotic stresses were found to be differently expressed in the resistant line. The results reported here represent the most comprehensive transcript database developed so far in faba bean, providing valuable information that could be used to gain insight into the pathways involved in the resistance mechanism against A. fabae and to identify potential resistance genes to be further used in marker assisted selection. ; This research was supported by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ 2007-2013) under the grant agreement n°FP7-613551, LEGATO project; the 2014-2020 "Programa Operativo de Crecimiento Inteligente" (RTA2013-00025) and RTA2010-00059, the IPT-2011-1259-010000 project and the P10-CVI-6075, all co-financed by ERDF and the last by the Andalusian regional government. ; Peer reviewed

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is an important grain legume widely grown as a spring crop to avoid frost damage. However, there is interest in winter types for the expected benefits in grain yield as compared to spring ones. In the current experiments, we compared field performance in autumn sowings of 15 faba bean winter-type cultivars that were sown in two consecutive autumns in 12 climatically contrasting sites in Austria, France, Germany, Spain, and the UK. GGE biplot analyses (genotype plus genotype-byenvironment interaction) were conducted to evaluate yield performance of faba bean genotypes and identification of mega-environments. Crossover genotypeenvironment was large and mainly due to the geoclimatic area. GGE biplot allowed identification of three mega-environments, namely continental, oceanic, and Mediterranean. Due to the climatic diversity of the environments, no cultivar performed well in all environments. Cultivars Clipper, Castel, Target, Wizard, and Gabl-107 performed well in oceanic mega-environment, whereas cultivars Castel, HIX, and Target performed well in continental mega-environment. None of the studied cultivars were suited to Mediterranean environments, and only Irena was able to give some modest yield at Cordoba. The average tester coordinate (defined by the average of first and second principal components of all environments) allowed to evaluate cultivars for their yielding ability and stability and to evaluate environments for their discriminating ability and to be more representative of the mega-environment. Thus, Wizard and Gabl-107 were the highest yielding cultivars being relatively stable over oceanic and continental environments. In contrast, the cultivars Irena and Divine yielded poorly at all environments. The results support the specific breeding for each major geoclimatic zone based on distinct genetic bases and selection environments.© INRA and Springer-Verlag, France 2012. ; Financial support by the European Union EUFABA project (ref. QLK5-CT2002-02307) is acknowledged. ; Peer Reviewed

Faba bean (Vicia faba) production in Mediterranean and Near East agriculture is severely constrained by broomrape infection. The most widely distributed broomrape species affecting faba bean is Orobanche crenata, although O. foetida and Phelipanche aegyptiaca are of local importance. Only moderately resistant cultivars are available to farmers. Rizotrons studies allowed the dissection of resistance components in faba bean accessions against the very infective species O. crenata, O. foetida var. broteri and P. aegyptiaca, and to the inappropriate P. ramosa and O. foetida var. foetida. Results confirm that some levels of incomplete resistance are available, resulting in a reduced number of broomrape tubercles successfully formed per faba bean plant. Interestingly, the intermediate levels of resistance of cv. Baraca were operative against all broomrape populations and species studied, confirming previous reports on the stability of resistance of Baraca in field trials in different countries. Low induction of seed germination played a major role in the resistance against the inappropriate O. foetida var. foetida but not against the also inappropriate P. ramosa, neither to the infective species O. crenata, O. foetida var. broteri, or P. aegyptiaca. Negative tropism of germinated seeds with radicles growing away from faba bean roots was marked for both inappropriate species but was not observed in any of the infective species. Also, a proportion of radicles that had successfully contacted faba bean roots became necrotic, failing in starting tubercle development, particularly frequent for the two inappropriate species. Such necrosis was significant also on radicles contacting resistant faba bean accessions, being particularly relevant for Spanish O. crenata population, and lower although still significant in some accessions against Syrian O. crenata and P. aegyptiaca, suggesting that this might also be an operative mechanism to be selected and further exploited in faba bean resistance breeding. Even formed broomrape tubercles might later become necrotic, particularly in the case of some of the resistant faba bean accessions to the Spanish O. crenata and to P. aegyptiaca but not to the very infective Syrian O. crenata or O. foetida var. broteri. ; Authors are greatly indebted to European Union projects FP7-ARIMNet-Medileg and FP7-LEGATO (grant agreement 613551) for financial support. ; Peer reviewed ; Peer Reviewed

Cereal-legume intercropping can increase yields, reduce fertilizer input and improve soil quality compared with pure culture. Designing intercropping systems requires the integration of plant species trait selection with choice of crop configuration and management. Crop growth models can facilitate the understanding and prediction of the interactions between plant traits, crop configuration and management. However, currently no existing crop growth model has been calibrated and tested for cereal-legume intercrops throughout Europea. We calibrated the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) for pure cultures of wheat and faba bean using data from Dutch field trials, and determined the phenological parameters to simulate pure cultures and intercrops from seven field experiments across Europe. APSIM successfully reproduced aboveground dry matters and, for wheat only, grain yields in pure cultures. In intercrops, APSIM systematically overestimated the aboveground dry matter and grain yield of faba bean and underestimated those of wheat. APSIM was reasonably capable of simulating plant heights in pure cultures, but respectively overestimated and underestimated the height of faba bean and wheat in intercrops. In order to simulate wheat-faba bean intercrops better, APSIM should be improved regarding the calculation of biomass partitioning to grains in faba bean and of height growth in both species. ; HNCB, MW, AJK, EA, ÁMV, LPK, ACN, CS, ST, and GV received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 727284, project DIVERSify: Designing InnoVative plant teams for Ecosystem Resilience and agricultural Sustainability, https://www.plant-teams.eu/. WvdW received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 727217, project ReMIX: Redesigning European cropping systems based on species MIXtures, https://www.remix-intercrops.eu.

1. Concerns about insect declines are growing and the provisioning of ecosystem services like pollination may be threatened. To safeguard biodiversity, greening measures were introduced within the reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. One measure commonly applied by farmers is the cultivation of nitrogen fixing crops. Although underlying studies are largely missing, this measure is criticized as providing no significant biodiversity benefit. 2. Using a landscape-scale approach, we selected 30 paired study landscapes (1 km × 1 km) in Germany, that is, 15 study landscapes with faba bean (FB) fields (Vicia faba L .) a nd 15 w ithout a ny g rain l egumes. F lower-visiting w ild b ees were recorded with transect walks at the field margins of different crops using a stratified sampling approach. We analysed the effect of FB cultivation and landscape composition on the abundance and species richness of wild bees as well as on the functional composition of the bee communities. 3. Bumblebee densities (Bombus spp. Latreille) were more than twice as high in FB compared to control landscapes after the flowering of the beans. Non-Bombus wild bee densities, however, were not affected by FB cultivation, but were enhanced by increasing amounts of semi-natural habitats (SNH). 4. After the beans' blooming had ceased, FB landscapes had a higher proportion of wild bees collecting pollen from Fabaceae than control landscapes. The communityweighted means for bee size, measured as intertegular distance, were not affected by FB cultivation, but we found smaller species and species with shorter tongues with an increasing percentage of SNH. 5. Synthesis and applications. The cultivation of faba bean Vicia faba L . s trongly increased bumblebee densities throughout the season. This indicates that also on-field greening measures can support biodiversity. Nevertheless, since only functional groups adapted to faba bean benefit, measures to promote seminatural habitats in agricultural landscapes need to be implemented. We conclude that the combination of on- and off-field measures is essential to maintain farmland biodiversity and the Common Agricultural Policy should furthermore promote both.

In the frame of EU 7th Research Framework Programme of The European Union project EUROLEGUME (Enhancing of legumes growing in Europe through sustainable cropping for protein supplay for food and feed) two Rhizobium leguminosarium strains alone and in mixture were examinated to evaluate the influence on yield formation of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) 'Lielplatones'. The field experiment was carried out at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics between 2014 -2016 in the organic cropping system field. The beans seeds were treated with rhizobia fungi by soaking in bacteria suspension for 30 minutes before sowing. A plant high was measured at the beginning of flowering (BBCH 61- 64), at the beginning of forming pods (BBCH 71- 75) and at the beginning of maturity (BBCH 81- 85). The inoculation of plant seeds promotes a slight increase in the plant length. The highest yield was from seeds inoculated with strain R2. There were no significant differences between tested strains. The results of this investigation indicate that rhizobium inoculation is a recommendable management tool for faba beans generally but effectiveness of rhizobial strains strongly depending climate conditions. Seed treatment with Rhizobium contributed to an increase in the quantity of nitrogen in the soil.