Abstract
Determinacy growth habit and accelerated flowering traits were selected during or after domestication in common bean. Both processes affect several presumed adaptive traits such as the rate of plant production. There is a close association between flowering initiation and vegetative growth; however, interactions among these two crucial developmental processes and their genetic bases remain unexplored. In this study, with the aim to establish the genetic relationships between these complex processes, a multi-environment quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping approach was performed in two recombinant inbred line populations derived from inter-gene pool crosses between determinate and indeterminate genotypes. Additive and epistatic QTLs were found to regulate flowering time, vegetative growth, and rate of plant production. Moreover, the pleiotropic patterns of the identified QTLs evidenced that regions controlling time to flowering traits, directly or indirectly, are also involved in the regulation of plant production traits. Further QTL analysis highlighted one QTL, on the lower arm of the linkage group Pv01, harboring the Phvul.001G189200 gene, homologous to the Arabidopsis thaliana TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1) gene, which explained up to 32% of phenotypic variation for time to flowering, 66% for vegetative growth, and 19% for rate of plant production. This finding was consistent with previous results, which have also suggested Phvul.001G189200 (PvTFL1y) as a candidate gene for determinacy locus. The information here reported can also be applied in breeding programs seeking to optimize key agronomic traits, such as time to flowering, plant height and an improved reproductive biomass, pods, and seed size, as well as yield.
Highlights
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important food legume for direct human consumption
The large range of variation and transgressive segregations observed for most traits in both Recombinant Inbred Line (RIL) populations suggested a complex control of these traits, with positive alleles shared between the two parents of the RIL populations
For number of primary stem branches (NPB), the number of branches produced by many of the RILs was higher than the parental lines in both populations, which indicated a positive transgressive segregation for this trait, some skewing was observed in MA to low values
Summary
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important food legume for direct human consumption. It is considered to be a rich source of proteins, micronutrients, and calories for human daily needs (Broughton et al, 2003). It is grown over a wide range of latitudes; there is an adaptation of each cultivar to a relatively narrow range of latitudes. Wild bean forms present indeterminate growth habits and require day-lengths of
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