Stability of Vicia faba L. cultivars and responsible traits for Aphis fabae Scopoli, 1763 preference

The study aimed to evaluate the responsible traits of preference of Aphis fabae to Vicia faba cultivars and their stability in multi-environment field tests. The experiment was carried out at the Institute of Forage Crops (Pleven) during the period 2016 to 2018. Aphid infestation was assessed by recording the number per plant at the pod formation, while the chemical composition was determined by standard Weende system methods. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that the aphid density was negatively correlated with the amount of rainfall and humidity until aphids were positively correlated with the temperature. According to GGE biplot analysis cultivar Fb 3270, followed by BGE 029055 and BGE 002106 were stable with a low density of aphids and were defined as tolerant. A significant negative correlation was found between the density of aphids and plant height (r = -0.447). The protein content showed a significant positive correlation (r = 0,686), while phosphorus and cyanogenic glycoside concentration were significantly negatively correlated with the aphid incidence (r = -0.411, r = -0.685, respectively). The results lay the groundwork for further analyses to finely dissect A. fabae tolerance in V. faba and pave the way for the development of methods to predict ...