Effect of species, cultivar and phenological stage of different forage legumes on herbage fatty acid composition

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of species, cultivar, and phenological stage, on the concentration of fatty acid composition in different forages legumes. Four species and eight cultivarsVicia sativaL. (VS cv. Jose JO, and Nikian NI),Vicia VillosaRoth (VV cv.Haiymaker HA, and Hungivillosa HU)Trifolium incarnatumL. (TI cv. Viterbo VI, and Contea CO), andTrifolium alexandrinumL. (TAX cv Marmilla MA and Sacromonte SA) were compared. Overall the main factors which influence fatty acids (FA) profile appear to be forage species and phenological stage but we need to consider the numerous interaction with these factors; besides the second important FA (C16:0) did not change between different phenological stages whereas linoleic acid increases (about 50% P<0.01) and linolenic acid decreases (about 10% P<0.01) from vegetative to reproductive stage. We observe also a worsening effect (P<0.05) on unsaturated/ saturated (UNSAT/SAT) ratio from vegetative to reproductive stage. In conclusion these studies demonstrate a significant genetic component to the level and pattern of fatty acid concentration as well as a key role of the association between phenological stage and cultivars which modulated the amplitude and the trend of fatty acid pattern.