The FIGS (Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy) Approach Identifies Traits Related to Drought Adaptation in Vicia faba Genetic Resources

Abstract

Efficient methods to explore plant agro-biodiversity for climate change adaptive traits are urgently required. The focused identification of germplasm strategy (FIGS) is one such approach. FIGS works on the premise that germplasm is likely to reflect the selection pressures of the environment in which it developed. Environmental parameters describing plant germplasm collection sites are used as selection criteria to improve the probability of uncovering useful variation. This study was designed to test the effectiveness of FIGS to search a large faba bean (Vicia faba L.) collection for traits related to drought adaptation. Two sets of faba bean accessions were created, one from moisture-limited environments, and the other from wetter sites. The two sets were grown under well watered conditions and leaf morpho-physiological traits related to plant water use were measured. Machine-learning algorithms split the accessions into two groups based on the evaluation data and the groups created by this process were compared to the original climate-based FIGS sets. The sets defined by trait data were in almost perfect agreement to the FIGS sets, demonstrating that ecotypic differentiation driven by moisture availability has occurred within the faba bean genepool. Leaflet and canopy temperature as well as relative water content contributed more than other traits to the discrimination between sets, indicating that their utility as drought-tolerance selection criteria for faba bean germplasm. This study supports the assertion that FIGS could be an effective tool to enhance the discovery of new genes for abiotic stress adaptation.

Grain Legumes

“…For adaptive traits, core and mini-core collections may not capture the needed diversity (Gepts 2006). As an alternative, the Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS) approach, which is a trait-based approach with high probability of identification of desired genetic material (Khazaei et al 2013) is being applied at ICARDA to the Lathyrus germplasm collection to develop subset collections.…”

Use of synteny to identify candidate genes underlying QTL controlling stomatal traits in faba bean (Vicia faba L.)

“…Sizeable differences in stomatal morphology and function separated faba bean accessions adapted to dry regions from those adapted to wet regions (Khazaei et al 2013a, b). Leaf temperature was the most informative of 16 measurements (see Khazaei et al 2013a) to discriminate accessions from environments with contrasting seasonal moisture availability, and has been recommended for use as a cost-efficient surrogate for more expensive or sometimes unreliable morpho-physiological traits in this species (Khan et al 2010) and in several other crops (Blum 2011a).…”

NGS-Based Genotyping, High-Throughput Phenotyping and Genome-Wide Association Studies Laid the Foundations for Next-Generation Breeding in Horticultural Crops

“…FIGS allows for the identification of a core of accessions with a higher probability of containing specific "target" traits subjected to the selection pressure of the environment from which they were originally sampled [25]. The method, which maximizes the possibility to capture specific adaptive traits by means of high-throughput geographic information system (GIS) technologies, has been mainly used to identify sources of resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses in cereals, but has not yet successfully applied in horticultural crops [26].…”