A Selection Strategy for Low Toxin Vetches (Vicia sativa spp.)

Abstract

The aim of this investigation was to identify suitable parental lines of vetch (Vicia sativa spp.) from Turkish and ICARDA germplasm, with appropriate morphological and phenological characters, for generating low %w w-1 g-L-Glutamyl-b-cyano-L-alanine toxin cultivars, using infrared nitrile screening, dendrogram clustering, and Pearson correlations. A significant inverse relationship between seed-mass and %w w-1 g-L-Glutamyl-b-cyano-L-alanine was observed in 13 semiprostrate lines of V. sativa. No corresponding seed-toxin, seed-mass relationship was observable in 41 lines of V. sativa subsp. sativa of erect habit. Accordingly, the possibilities for the incorporation of the low toxic compound in small-seeded semiprostrate V. sativa lines into larger seeded erect V. sativa lines, via a Mendelian crossing program, was investigated. The limitations to this conclusion are also discussed.