Recipient Organization
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
FORT COLLINS,CO 80523
Performing Department
Soil and Crop Science
Non Technical Summary
Common bean is the most important legume worldwide and also an important crop in the US. Common beans are an important component of the cropping system due to their capacity to fix nitrogen. Also, beans provide greater nutrient density to human diets than cereal crops and have been found to reduce the risk of heart disease and certain cancers. Since there is an increased consumer interest in plant-based diets in the US, the bean demand is expected to increase in the near future. However, to compete with other commodity crops such as soybeans and corn, common bean yields need to increase and they must do it in a sustainable way. That means that bean varieties more efficiently in utilizing water and nitrogen need to be developed to preserve natural resources.This interdisciplinary project will make use of resources available from collaborators in 14 states including Colorado to achieve the overall goal of developing high yielding bean varieties with enhanced culinary and nutritional qualities, as well as resistance to major diseases and other stresses including drought. These varieties will help reduce production costs and pesticide use, increase yield and competitiveness of bean growers in the US, and sustain production for domestic consumption and export.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Increase productivity and sustainability
Examine nutrition and quality factors which promote human health
Develop and apply genomic tools
Project Methods
Evaluation of the Dry Bean Drought Nursery (DBDN) under non-irrigated conditions in ARDEC every growing season to identify putative sources of drought tolerance. Grain yield will be measured for each line and shared with the rest of the W-4150 team.Health benefits of beans will be assessed in mouse models. In particular, obesity is known to predispose individuals to increased risk for type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. A mouse model will be used to test the effects of dry bean consumption on body weight regulation and on insulin resistance and chronic inflammation.Identification/validation of QTLs for disease resistances in RIL populations. A couple of populations of Recombinant Inbred Lines (RIL) have been developed previously at CSU. They have been genotyped at a high-density with the Illumina SNP chip and phenotyped for disease resistances including white mold and Fusarium wilt. QTL mapping will be conducted using a mixed model for QTL mapping implemented in R.