Effects of genotype × environment interactions on the morphological and genetic aspects of the seed characteristics of faba beans

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is one of the oldest crops in the world. It is the third most important feed grain legume globally, after wheat and barley (Singh et al. 2013). It is an autogamous plant with 20% to 80% partial outcrossing. The objective of most crop improvement programs in faba beans is to improve yield, but yield is a complex trait that is correlated with many other traits; therefore, in this study, we focused on important traits related to faba bean improvement to increase yield, which is associated with seed characteristics. We used 110 genotypes in this study to investigate SNPs related to seed characteristics. We detected high genetic variation among all the traits. There was a strong positive correlation between the seed characteristics at the two locations. The genotype ×location (G×L) interactions were highly significant. FB-231 and FB-227 performed very well in both countries based on the SI values, whereas FB-193 and FB-185 had the lowest SI values in both countries. All genotypes were genotyped via single primer enrichment technology (SPET). As a result, we identified 33,165 SNP markers. ChrVF1L1 had the highest number of SNP markers. The total number of significant SNPs detected in Germany (162) and Egypt (31) was based on the suggestive p-value. A set of 11 SNPs was associated with more than one seed trait in Germany, whereas only one SNP was associated with two traits in Egypt.