SHORT COMMUNICATION Development and validation of a robust, breeder-friendly molecular marker for the vc - locus in faba bean Hamid Khazaei & Randy W. Purves & Melody Song & Robert Stonehouse & Kirstin E. Bett & Frederick L. Stoddard & Albert Vandenberg Received: 28 July 2017 /Accepted: 16 October 2017 /Published online: 30 October 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017 Abstract Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a valuable feed and food crop with potential for development globally as a staple protein crop. Its consumption is limited by the anti-nutritional factors vicine and convicine (v-c) in its seeds. A single gene (vc - ) confers the low v-c phenotype in faba bean. Time-consuming and laborious quantita- tive chemical analysis is currently used in breeding programs to detect v-c concentration. Molecular markers within or linked to the vc - gene could facilitate rapid and cost-effective screening of early generation breeding populations for low v-c concentration. The large and complex faba bean genome has been an im- pediment to the progress of development of molecular breeding strategies. Here, we report a high-throughput low-cost KASP (Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR) marker for low v-c concentration in faba bean. The KASP assay successfully distinguished low and high v-c lines of faba bean. This marker is a significant and valuable molecular tool for faba bean breeding pro- grams aiming to reduce v-c from faba beans worldwide. Keywords Vicine . Convicine . KASP . Marker-assisted selection . SNP . Vicia faba Introduction Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) seed is a rich source of protein, carbohydrates, and fiber for both food and feed, but its usage has been historically limited due to the presence of the pyrimidine glycosides, vicine and convicine (v-c, Crépon et al. 2010). In humans with a genetic mutation in G6PDH (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase), v-c causes many functional and clinical disorders, e.g., a hemolytic disease called favism (Cappellini and Fiorelli 2008). In broiler chickens and laying hens, v-c has been associated with reduced productivity and viability (Vilariño et al. 2009; Koivunen et al. 2014). The cotyledons of most faba bean germplasm contain about 1% v-c (e.g., Khamassi et al. 2013; Purves et al. 2017a, 2017b, 2018). The allele vc - reduces v-c concen- tration by 95% or more in faba bean seeds (Duc et al. 1989). The vc - allele was discovered in a Greek landrace after phenotypic screening of more than 900 faba bean accessions. This single recessive gene source has been used to produce faba bean genotypes and cultivars with Mol Breeding (2017) 37: 140 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-017-0742-5 Key message We developed and validated a robust molecular marker for high-throughput and cost-effective screening for low vicine-convicine concentration in faba bean. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-017-0742-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. H. Khazaei (*) : R. W. Purves : R. Stonehouse : K. E. Bett : A. Vandenberg Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon S7N 5A8, Canada e-mail: hamid.khazaei@gmail.com e-mail: hamid.khazaei@usask.ca M. Song Evan Hardy Collegiate Institute, Saskatoon, Canada F. L. Stoddard Department of Agricultural Sciences, Viikki Plant Science Centre, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland