a Biodiversity and crop improvement Program (BicP), international centre for agricultural research in the Dry areas (icarDa), rabat, morocco; b team of anthropogenetics and Biotechnologies, faculty of Sciences, chouaib Doukkali university, el-Jadida, morocco; c food Sciences laboratory, Department of Biology, faculty of Sciences Semlalia, cadi ayyad university, marrakech, morocco; d Dipartimento di agricoltura, alimentazione e ambiente, university of catania, catania, italy; e african integrated Plant and Soil research group (aiPlaS), agroBioSciences, mohammed Vi Polytechnic university, Ben guerir, morocco; f microbiology, health and environment research team,