In research just published in the journal Nature Plants, an international team of researchers including USask plant scientists have identified a key step in how the plant—also known as the faba bean or broad bean—produces the compounds vicine and convicine. In four per cent of the world’s population who carry a specific gene, digesting fava beans can trigger the blood disorder, known as favism. “Fava bean has been a neglected crop because of the favism issue,” said Dr. Albert Vandenberg (PhD), USask plant breeder and geneticist, and co-author of the research. “Now, we can reduce 99 per cent of the vicine and convicine, and using sequencing and genomics, we should be able to zero in, to shut it down, 100 per cent.”