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Cultivation of faba bean ( Vicia faba L.) in Tunisia is largely based on improved varieties of the crop. However, a few farmers continue to produce local cultivars or landraces. The National Gene Bank of Tunisia (NGBT) recently launched a collection project for faba bean landraces, with special focus on the regions of the North West, traditionally devoted to cultivating grain legumes, and where around 80% of the total national faba bean cultivation area is located. The seed phenotypic features of the collected samples were studied, and the genetic diversity and population structure analyzed using simple sequence repeat markers. The genetic constitution of the present samples was compared to that of faba bean samples collected by teams of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in the 1970s in the same region, and stored at the ICARDA gene bank. The results of the diversity analysis demonstrate that the recently collected samples and those stored at ICARDA largely overlap, thus demonstrating that over the past 50 years, little genetic change has occurred to the local faba bean populations examined. These findings suggest that farmers serendipitously applied international best practices for in situ conservation of agricultural crops., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests for this research.

The development of a robust Agrobacterium -mediated transformation protocol for a recalcitrant species like durum wheat requires the identification and optimization of factors affecting T-DNA delivery and plant regeneration. The purpose of this research was to compare the behavior of diverse durum wheat genotypes during in vitro culture and Agrobacterium tumefaciens -mediated transformation, using immature embryos as explants. Apart from plant genotype, two of the main influencing factors for a successful genetic transformation have been examined here, i.e., auxin source (Dicamba and 2,4-D) and duration of the pre-culture period (one, seven and 21 days). The addition of Dicamba to the media in combination with seven days pre-cultivation resulted in a general enhancement of T-DNA delivery for most of the analyzed cultivars, as revealed by β-glucuronidase (GUS) histochemical assay. Although all genotypes were able to produce calli, significant differences were detected in regeneration and transformation efficiencies, since only two (Karalis and Neolatino) out of 14 cultivars produced fertile transgenic plants. The estimated transformation efficiencies were 6.25% and 1.66% for Karalis and Neolatino, respectively, and χ² analysis revealed the stable integration and segregation of the gus transgene in T₁ and T₂ progenies. This research has demonstrated that, among the influencing factors, genotype and auxin type play the most important role in the success of durum wheat transformation.