Location: Tropical Crops and Germplasm Research
Project Number: 6090-21000-063-006-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: May 1, 2022
End Date: Mar 31, 2025
Objective:
Common bean is the most important pulse crop worldwide. An important constraint to the genetic improvement of common bean in the United States is the limited genetic diversity used in breeding programs. The introgression of traits from sister species and from wild progenitors of common bean are two approaches for broadening its diversity. The objective of this project is to advance common bean and tepary bean breeding by exploiting the close evolutionary relationship of these two species. Novel disease and insect resistance traits will be evaluated and mapped in tepary bean. A framework will be developed using the recently sequenced genomes of both species to develop high resolution molecular markers that will permit rapid trait introgression and accelerated breeding for these important traits for farmers.
Approach:
n order to achieve the objectives of the project a pan-Phaseolus molecular knowledge base will be developed through uniting the newly available sequence data from both species and the genetic trait information available in common bean. This knowledge base will be augmented through the evaluation of agronomic traits in tepary bean using sequence-based Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS). Finally, newly discovered traits and novel genetic markers developed from these previous efforts will be used to accelerate breeding in common bean and tepary bean through marker assisted selection.
