Dry bean breeding and production technologies

Authors: Miklas, Phillip - Phil; KELLY, JAMES - Michigan State University; Cichy, Karen

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/2/2021
Publication Date: 2/1/2022
Citation: Miklas, P.N., Kelly, J.D., Cichy, K.A. 2022. Dry bean breeding and production technologies. In: Siddiq, M., Uebersax, M.A., editors. Dry Beans and Pulses: Production, processing, and nutrition. 2nd edition. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. p. 29-56.

Interpretive Summary: Common bean includes multiple dry bean seed types that differ in size, shape and color and are known collectively as dry beans. Dry beans are a short season crop that matures in 85-100 days. Consequently, beans are produced largely in northern states or at higher elevations in the intermountain and western states. Approximately 70% of total acreage planted to beans in the U.S. is grown under rainfed conditions in the East, Midwest and Upper Midwest, whereas essentially all western production in semiarid states is grown under irrigation. Currently there are four public bean breeding programs at major land grant Universities, four USDA-ARS programs that focus on bean genetics and pathology and four private companies actively working on bean breeding. The major dry bean breeding objectives include seed yield, disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, agronomic quality, and processing quality.

Technical Abstract: Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) includes a wide array of edible dry bean seed types that differ in size, shape and color and are known collectively as dry beans; and the many horticultural pod types that also vary in color, size, shape and flavor known collectively as snap or garden or green beans. The major focus of this chapter will be on dry bean breeding but many of the characteristics discussed are common to both horticultural types. Common bean is a self-pollinated diploid crop (2n=2x=22) with a small genome size of approximately 587 million base pairs distributed along eleven chromosomes. The breeding systems used to improve the crop and the genetic structure of the varieties released to farmers is dependent on the pollination system and flower structure. Varieties are highly inbred homozygous pure lines that maintain their genetic integrity and stability for generations. Bean varieties do not ‘run- out’ or change due to genetic drift but perceived changes due to inadvertent seed mixtures that go undetected, low levels of outcrossing in the field and the accumulation of seed borne bacterial, fungal and/or viral pathogens can occur. More subtle changes may result in differential performance from changes in climate or from the emergence of new pathogen strains to which the variety is not adapted or lacks resistance. Since beans are an inbreeding species, with no effective mechanism to transfer pollen, hybrid bean varieties are not a viable option at this time. The first dry bean breeding program in the U.S. was established at Michigan State University (formerly Michigan State College) in the early 1900s. This was followed by the establishment of a breeding program at the University of Idaho in 1925 (Singh et al. 2007) and the most recent bean breeding program was established at North Dakota State University in the early 1980s. Currently there are four public bean breeding programs at major land grant Universities, four USDA-ARS programs that focus on bean genetics and pathology and four private companies actively working on bean breeding.