United Kingdom
November 29, 2018
Victus in trials - Picture courtesy of PGRO
Theo Labuda, Managing Director of LSPB (LS Plant Breeders Ltd), comments on the newly announced PGRO Recommended Lists for Combining Peas and Beans.
“The leading position of LSPB varieties in the 2019 PGRO Recommended Lists underline the continuing investment we are making in improving yields, agronomic characters and marketability of pulses for all UK growers.
“Starting with spring beans, we are proud to see our varieties Lynx, Fanfare, Vertigo and Mallory take the top four places for yield - as well as bringing improved resistance to downy mildew.
“This year also sees the innovation of a new sub-category for LVC (low vicine/convicine) spring beans with our varieties Victus and Tiffany being the first ever listed.
“These varieties are distinguished by a high protein and low vicine and convicine content - characters that will help to further develop the UK pulse market with end users. These anti-nutritional compounds accumulate in the cotyledons of faba beans. When humans consume beans with high levels of these compounds, it can cause a condition called favism in individuals. When faba beans are used in animal feeds, there can be effects on performance. (SEE FOOTNOTE FOR FURTHER BACKGROUND).
“Tiffany and Victus are already both being marketed with premiums on buy back contract for specialist animal feed use.
“Turning to large blue peas, Bluetime and Blueman and Bluetooth continue to underpin the PGRO list with Bluetime having the top yield and Blueman the highest rating for downy mildew. They are joined by newly listed Croft with a P1 rating.
“While our large blue pea Campus is no longer on the RL, it has a leading position in the marketplace with over 20% of the large blues certified in the UK and an excellent reputation with end users - as well being as popular with growers due to its standing power and harvestability.
“Last but certainly not least, our fully recommended Marrowfat variety, Aikido, maintains its position as the leading variety in its class.”
Note
Extract from LVC research paper … Vicine and convicine are anti-nutritional compounds that accumulate in the cotyledons of faba beans. When humans consume beans with high levels of these compounds, it can cause a condition called favism in individuals harbouring a deficiency in the activity of their glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. When faba beans are used in animal feeds, there can be effects on performance … these concerns have resulted in increasing interest within plant breeding in developing low vicine and convicine faba bean germplasm … work is in progress in developing a rapid and robust screening method for vicine and convicine, capable of distinguishing between faba beans that are either high (wild type) or low in vicine and convicine … biochemical assay and spectral data can be used to confirm the identity of vicine and convicine. This method could be readily adopted in other facilities and open the way to the efficient exploitation of diverse germplasm in regions where faba beans play a significant role in human nutrition.
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