Phaseolus vulgaris: the common bean

Abstract

Gregor Mendel (1866) conducted the first genetic analysis of common beans. Mendel studied the inheritance of growth habit, and pod color and shape in a progeny between P. vulgaris and P. nanus (= P. vulgaris, bush type) in order to confirm his findings with peas. Unfortunately, further studies on the inheritance of flower and seed coat color were hampered by his use of interspecific hybrids between P. nanus and P. multiflorus (= P. coccineus), which are now known to yield aberrant ratios. Later, Shaw and Norton (1918) used intraspecific crosses and determined that pigmentation and pigmentation patterns of the seed coat are controlled by multiple independent factors. A few years later Sax (1923) began to identify the multiple components that determine the inheritance of these traits. A single factor was identified as responsible for pigmentation, while two linked factors were identified to control mottling; this appears to be the first report of linkage in beans. Furthermore, Sax (1923) was the first to report linkage between a Mendelian character (seed coat pigmentation) and a QTL (for seed size). Although the common bean was used as experimental material at the inception of genetics, its genetic characterization has lagged behind that of many other crop species.