Estimates of broad‐sense heritability for seed yield and yield criteria in faba bean (Vicia faba L.)

摘要

Faba bean, Vicia faba L., is the only species known in cultivation of section Faba. Faba bean was divided two subspecies; V. faba subsp. paucijuga Murat and V. faba subsp. faba L. by Maxted (1995). The taxon V. faba subsp. faba L. was classified in three variety groups, var. minor, var. equina and var. faba (major). Variety groups were also referred to as tick bean, horse bean or field bean and broad bean (Cubero 1984; Jensen 1992; Bond 1995; Duc 1997). Faba bean is grown for dry seeds and is cultivated on nearly 2.5×106 ha with a yield of 1504 kg ha?1 worldwide. The total cultivated area and yield for dry seeds of faba bean in Turkey is 18×103 ha and 1833 kg ha?1, respectively (Fao 2002).Plant height, number of stems and pods per plant, biological yield, harvest index, 100-seed weight, days to flowering and maturity are the most important characters in faba bean improvement for increasing seed yield due to direct and indirect correlation with seed yield (Loss and Siddique 1997). Genotypes by year or environment interactions reduce the association between phenotypic and genotypic values. Also, it may be the cause of poor performance of genotypes for selection from one environment to another, forcing plant breeders to examine genotypic adaptation. Measuring genotype×environment or year interactions are also important to determine an optimum breeding strategy for releasing cultivars with adequate adaptation to target environments (Fox et al. 1997). Many plant breeders consider what might be the ideal plant type for their target area and often construct a crop ideotype. Therefore, estimate of heritability should be determined for applying an optimum breeding strategy. In this study, heritability via variance components and genotype×year interactions for plant height, number of stems and pods per plant, seed yield, biological yield, 100-seed weight, days to flowering and maturity were determined on faba bean genotypes in lowland of the west-Mediterranean region of Turkey.