Project Number: 3635-21430-007-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Nov 28, 2003
End Date: Oct 31, 2008

Objective:
Use adapted and un-adapted germplasm to enhance dry bean cultivars for desirable agronomic, cooking and nutritional traits. Determine the inheritance and genetic basis of food quality traits to increase the efficiency of selection for improved canning quality characteristics using molecular-assisted selection. Identify structural and chemical factors that may limit digestibility, cookability, and bioavailability of nutrients. Isolate, identify and characterize seedcoat flavonoid compounds and relate the Mendelian genes controlling the flavonoids to the pathways by which these compounds are formed. Determine the genetic variables controlling pigment leaching in black bean.

Approach:
Develop recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of various market classes of dry bean to identify genes involved with agronomic, nutritional, and cooking traits and use this information for germplasm enhancement and test the effectiveness of existing RAPD markers between market classes. Ascertain the relative indigestibility of starch, dietary fiber, proteins, and oligosaccharides using digestion assays. Determine the relative amounts of crystalline and retrograded starch using microscopy. Determine mechanisms involved in cell wall polymerization and starch granule encapsulation. Identify genetic factors influencing pigment leaching in black bean using novel approaches. Isolate and identify flavonoid compounds from bean seed coats and relate them to the Mendalian genes controlling the biosynthetic pathway. Use traditional approaches to incorporate disease resistance, particularly resistance to anthracnose and bean common mosaic virus, with enhanced food quality traits.