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Faba bean gene-pools development for low-input agriculture: understanding early stages of natural selection

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Abstract

Six faba bean gene-pools were cultivated to develop locally adapted genetic material for low-input (LI) systems that take advantage of the observed benefit of LI agriculture in pollinator density and diversity. Bee pollinators intensify selection on floral traits important in attraction and mechanical-fit but may also select for traits that increase seed set through outcrossing and aided selfing. Our research is focused on examining the impact of natural selection in crop performance under different pollination management strategies, taking into account traits relevant for the inter-phase plant and pollinator. Architectural and floral patterns are the result of natural selection and they reflect local adaptation to factors of the environment and adaptations to differences in pollination management strategy. However, seed production patterns seem to be affected by natural selection in an inconsistent way. Principal Component models showed a large proportion of the temporal variation accounted by plant height and number of open flowers and by floral shape and sexual dimensions. Discriminant Analysis indicated that plant architecture and floral traits related to pollinators are also the result of selection for particular patterns in each pollination management strategy. Flowers with an increase in the zygomorphy were favored under the open-pollination. Our work confirms the need for careful management of plant-pollinator inter-phase in faba bean breeding for LI systems.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financed by the EU in the FP7-KBBE-2009-3 project SOLIBAM (Strategies for Organic and Low-input Integrated Breeding and Management). Authors thankful to R. Palmer for the valuable suggestions and comments to improve the manuscript. Thanks also to Ignacio Solis, Francisco Ruiz and Clara Marquez, from Agrovegetal, for contributing to the SOLIBAM project particularly for specifically collaborating in the faba bean breeding. We also are grateful to J. L. Ubera for taking the faba bean pollinator picture.

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  1. Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS-CSIC), Córdoba, Spain

    M. J. Suso & R. del Río

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Correspondence to M. J. Suso.

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Suso, M.J., del Río, R. Faba bean gene-pools development for low-input agriculture: understanding early stages of natural selection. Euphytica 196, 77–93 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-013-1015-y

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