Investigation of genotype [formula omitted] environment interactions for the seed mineral composition in Phaseolus vulgaris L.

Abstract

Common bean is an ancient grain legume crop that has been cultivated in various parts of the world by humankind for centuries. The seeds of this crop contain valuable source of protein, minerals, and vitamins. It has recently gained attention as a functional food due to its potential for preventing human diseases and providing health benefits. Therefore, plant breeders are globally aimed for nutritional development to mitigate mineral deficiencies in developed and developing countries. In this study, the genotypes and cultivars were investigated in relation to the contents of N, P, K, Mg, Ca, Fe and Zn in four different field experiments at the Bolu and Ankara of Turkey. The field experiments were conducted in the years 2018 and 2019 at the Bolu location and in the years 2019 and 2020 at the Ankara location. Genotype × environment interaction was determined statistically significant (P < 0.01) in all mineral traits according to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Across all locations, the correlation analysis revealed positive associations between calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) (r = 0.793 **), as well as between iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) (r = 0.301 **). A total of 89.78% of cumulative variances in mineral traits were explained by the eigenvalues of the four principal components (PC). In the biplot analysis, the length and direction of the Ca, Mg and potassium (K) vectors in PC1 and Fe, and Zn vectors in PC2 effectively distinguished the genotypes. Across all locations, the Blck-7 genotype had high iron (93.76 mg kg−1) and zinc (25.40 mg kg−1) content. The Çnk-4 genotype was found as stable for all mineral traits in locations. Findings revealed that the utilization of the Çnk-4 and Blck-7 genotypes could significantly contribute to the improvement of dietary nutritional quality and positively impact human health. These genotypes also could be utilized as a parent to further biofortification studies to enhance the nutritional traits of common bean seeds.