Drought is a major environmental stress that limits faba bean growth, leading to considerable reduction in their productivity. Two genotypes (Giza 3 and Hara) were evaluated under three water treatments (90%, 60% and 30% field capacity). The results showed that water stress affects negatively chlorophyll fluorescence parameters at different levels of water deficit and the variations of Fv/Fm, ΦPSII and electron transport rate in Giza 3 were largely higher than those in Hara. Drought preferentially enhanced the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and guaiacol peroxidase whereas it did not affect ascorbate peroxidase activity. Real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction results demonstrated that the expression of aquaporin (PIP), myeloblastosis (MYB), nine-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase, late embryogenesis abundant, dehydrins (Dhn), heat shock protein (HSP) and APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor was modified in response to drought conditions and that all genes were differentially expressed in Hara and Giza 3. The observed expression patterns of these genes might be due to water deficit intensity according to cultivar’s tolerance to drought. Hara with the highest level of antioxidant enzyme activities, the accumulation of proline content and the expression level of Dhn, HSP and MYB gene throughout all conditions tested is reported more drought tolerant than Giza 3. This study should contribute to explaining the physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanism tolerance drought stress and improving breeding program in faba bean.

Genetic diversity within Vicia faba L. is key to the genetic improvement of this important species. In this study, morphological traits and RAPD molecular markers were used to assess the levels of polymorphism across 12 Tunisian populations, three major and nine minor from different locations. Analysis of morphological traits indicated that the three major populations showed significant differences and the nine minor populations exhibited considerable variation for most traits. The grain yield of the Alia population could be increased by inoculation. Of the seven primers tested, it was clear that the Cs12 primer would be recommend for genetic diversity analysis of V. faba.Within population genetic diversity exhibited 94% of total diversity. Intra-population genetic diversity (HS) was 0.16, which was clearly higher than between population genetic diversity (DST = 0.06) UPG-MA showed a high level of genetic variation between major and minor populations of V. faba L. Particularly the minor populations showed a high level of diversity and was divided into two subclusters. Ltaifia was separated from the other populations. In addition to a high grain yield, these populations showed the lowest Nei and Shannon indices (H = 0.08 and I = 0.13) justifying their homogeneity. For these reasons, these cultivars can be considered a selected population. However, the Takelsa population showed the highest Nei and Shannon indices (H = 0.13 and I = 0.21), indicating that this population was the most heterogeneous, which is interesting for breeding programs.

Drought and salinity are two major environmental factors limiting faba bean growth, leading to considerable reduction in their productivity. The WRKY gene family act as major transcription factors that might play an important role in abiotic stress tolerance. In the present study, two partial sequences sharing significant homology with known WRKY genes were isolated from faba bean by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using degenerate primers targeting the well-conserved WRKY domain. The isolated WRKY gene fragments were designated as VfWRKY1 and VfWRKY2 showing 62% similarity between them. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses revealed that VfWRKY1 and VfWRKY2 belong to WRKY group I and could be grouped with their orthologues from other plant species. The gene expression profile of VfWRKY1 and VfWRKY2 in faba bean showed that they are significantly accumulated in various plant organs. Further, quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that both transcripts were responsive to drought and salt stress, and also they are genotype dependent, meaning that different faba bean cultivars respond in a different way to drought and salt challenge. The expression patterns obtained suggest the important roles of VfWRKY1 and VfWRKY2 in drought and salt stress response and tolerance. This knowledge might be helpful in the identification of drought-tolerant cultivars and provide potential candidate markers for faba bean breeding in order to develop osmotic-stress-tolerant cultivars.

Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) is an important annual forage legume. It is used as a cover crop, green manure, pasture legume and for silage and hay production. Its seeds can be used as a source of highly digestible protein and minerals in animal diets. However, their utilization as a feedstuff for monogastric animals is hindered by the fact that the seeds contain cyanogenic antinutritional factors that reduce their palatability. An effective utilization of V. sativa seeds as a successful monogastric feed stuff requires selection for higher protein availability and minimization of the cyanogenic antinutritional factors content. In this study, we selected one natural accession named Mjez Ibeb, from a collection of 25 accessions and cultivars, based on its superior agronomic performance and its naturally occurring genetic variation for cyanogenic traits. We investigated the genetic variation that exists for the cyanogenesis trait in more detail and analysed the seeds of 133 lines derived from accession Mjez lbeb. Of these, 40 naturally polymorphic lines that showed deficiencies in cyanogenesis and cyano‐amino acid content, were subsequently selected for detailed chemical analysis. Cyanogenic glucosides and cyano‐amino acid concentrations varied widely in the 40 lines. Multivariate analysis was performed and three lines (L₁₆, L₂₁, L₁₈) with low content of cyanogenic compounds were identified.