Development and Genomic Characterization of a Common Bean Segregant Population Targeting Traits of the Domestication Syndrome

A major aim of geneticists and breeders is to identify genes and molecular variants responsible for phenotypic variations, and to map them on the genome of the targeted organisms. The process of domestication in plants and animals represents not only a milestone in the history of the human beings, but it is also a valuable model for the study of evolutionary processes, and it study can be exploited to discover genes and genomic regions related to important agronomic traits, at the same time enabling the use of the genetic diversity available in wild relatives. Indeed, many studies have clearly indicated that the use of wild relatives can have a tremendous impact on crop improvement, whose potential yet remains largely untapped.

For the abovementioned reasons, we have developed an introgression population segregating for the domestication syndrome traits in the common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris L., mostly focusing on pod and seed traits. The wild donor was the Mesoamerican G12873 accession from Morelos (Mexico) and the recurrent parent was the snap bean Andean variety “Midas”. Here, we present the genomic characterization of this population of introgression lines using the data obtained by the use of a combination of Next-Generation Sequencing approaches, demonstrating through performing LD analysis, GWAS analysis on the traits of flowering time and flower color and family structure and introgression segment analysis, the utility and impact it can have both for scientific and practical purposes.