Genomics and Molecular Breeding for Biotic Stress Resistance in Faba Bean

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a significant legume in terms of its seeds’ high nutritional value, making it a crucial food and feed source. The primary goals of faba bean improvement include enhancing yield potential, resistance/tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress coupled with seed quality and other agronomical important attributes. The restricted cross-pollination behaviour of faba bean presents challenges as well as prospects towards genetic improvement through population improvement and breeding. However, conventional breeding approaches suitable for autogamy or allogamy crops are not as effective in faba bean genetic enhancement. Nonetheless, old school breeding techniques like recurrent mass selection were successfully employed to incorporate disease resistance in faba bean. Molecular breeding strategies that combine the latest advancements in genetics and genomics with traditional methods hold great potential towards development of climate-resilient cultivar of faba bean in near future. Consequently, concerted efforts were dedicated to enrich the genetic and genomic resources arsenal through modern sequencing tools and improve genetic transformation protocols. Though, the impact of faba bean breeding efforts on the development of suitable cultivars to farmers has yet to realize owing to the poor alignment between research and breeding goals, as well as the excess expenditure involved in research and subsequent implementation.