Common bean genetics, breeding, and genomics for adaptation to changing to new agri-environmental conditions

Authors: DE RON, ANTONIO - Spanish National Research Council; KALAVACHARLA, VENUE - Delaware State University; ALVAREZ-GARCIA, SAMUEL - University Of Leon; BEAVER, JAMES - University Of Puerto Rico; BEDMAR-VILLANUEVA, ANA - Agricultural Institute Of Spain; CARRO-HUELGA, HERMAN - University Of Leon; CASQUERO, PEDRO - University Of Leon; DE LA ROSA, LUCIA - Agricultural Institute Of Spain; DWORKIN, MOLLEE - Delaware State University; GALVAN, MARTA - Instituto Nacional Tecnologia Agropecuaria; GONCALVES-VIDIGAL, MARIA - Universidade Estadual De Maringá; GUTIERREZ, SANTIAGO - University Of Leon; LORENZANA, ALICIA - University Of Leon; MAYO-PRIETO, SARA - University Of Leon; Porch, Timothy - Tim; RODIÑO, A. PAULA - Spanish National Research Council; RODRIGUEZ-GONZALEZ, ALVARO - University Of Leon; SOFKOVA-BOBCHEVA, SVETIA - Massey University; SUAREZ-VILLANUEVA, VICTOR - University Of Leon

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/5/2019
Publication Date: 6/30/2019
Citation: De Ron, A.M., Kalavacharla, V., Alvarez-Garcia, S., Beaver, J.S., Bedmar-Villanueva, A., Carro-Huelga, H., Casquero, P.A., De La Rosa, L., Dworkin, M., Galvan, M.Z., Goncalves-Vidigal, M.C., Gutierrez, S., Lorenzana, A., Mayo-Prieto, S., Porch, T.G., Rodiño, A., Rodriguez-Gonzalez, A., Sofkova-Bobcheva, S., Suarez-Villanueva, V. 2019. Common bean genetics, breeding, and genomics for adaptation to changing to new agri-environmental conditions. In: Kole, C., editor. Designing of climate-smart pulse crops. Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland. p. 1-106.

Interpretive Summary: Common bean has become, over the last twenty years, a competitive crop in national, regional and international markets. This situation presents a dynamic environment for producers and researchers of this crop and requires a rethinking of current strategies against research and production needs, the opportunities and challenges of the future and adaptation to changing agri-environmental conditions. Improvement of the common bean means possessing in-depth knowledge of its genetic diversity, the genome and gene functions, to enable the analysis of pathways and networks in response to fluctuating environmental conditions. An important long-term challenge is the discovery of the gene(s) that control important production traits such as pests and diseases resistance, abiotic stress tolerance and biological fixation of nitrogen. This will need to be a cooperative world-wide effort that involves breeders, geneticists, and genomic and bioinformatics experts. Currently new technologies built around the recently released common bean genome sequence are now being developed and various genomic resources for common bean are available and include physical maps, bacterial artificial chromosome libraries, anchored physical and genetic maps and expressed sequence tags. However, these approaches require precise phenotypic data. Complex interactions between the common bean crop genotype, environmental factors in combination with plant population dynamics and crop management greatly affect plant phenotypes in field experiments and are the key for the expansion of the productivity of this crop in traditional and non-traditional growing areas.

Technical Abstract: Common bean has become, over the last twenty years, a competitive crop in national, regional and international markets. This situation presents a dynamic environment for producers and researchers of this crop and requires a rethinking of current strategies against research and production needs, the opportunities and challenges of the future and adaptation to changing agri-environmental conditions. Improvement of the common bean means possessing in-depth knowledge of its genetic diversity, the genome and gene functions, to enable the analysis of pathways and networks in response to fluctuating environmental conditions. An important long-term challenge is the discovery of the gene(s) that control important production traits such as pests and diseases resistance, abiotic stress tolerance and biological fixation of nitrogen. This will need to be a cooperative world-wide effort that involves breeders, geneticists, and genomic and bioinformatics experts. Currently new technologies built around the recently released common bean genome sequence are now being developed and various genomic resources for common bean are available and include physical maps, bacterial artificial chromosome libraries, anchored physical and genetic maps and expressed sequence tags. However, these approaches require precise phenotypic data. Complex interactions between the common bean crop genotype, environmental factors in combination with plant population dynamics and crop management greatly affect plant phenotypes in field experiments and are the key for the expansion of the productivity of this crop in traditional and non-traditional growing areas.