NORFAB and IMFABA – Public-private partnerships in faba bean breeding

Slides presented during “Pushing the boundaries in Legume Breeding “

Webinar 5:  European legumes in transition  29th April 2021

“NORFAB and IMFABA – Public-private partnerships in faba bean breeding”

NORFAB was established with the aim of developing a genomics-based breeding platform for faba bean through a collaborative effort by partners from Denmark, UK, Finland and Canada. Through this program, genetic and genomic resources were established, including a high quality reference gene set, a diversity panel and MAGIC populations. These new resources allowed the identification of the vc1 mutation, which is the only known source of low content of the antinutrients vicine and convicine. The Danish breeders Nordic Seed and Sejet Plant Breeding are central partners, and both initiated faba bean breeding programs as part of the NORFAB project. The public-private partnerships initiated in NORFAB are now being continued in IMFABA, which focuses on protein quality, drought tolerance, yield stability and selection of inbred parental lines for generation of synthetic varieties.

Presented by : Stig Uggerhøj Andersen – Associate professor – Plant molecular biology MBG Aarhus University Denmark