Common Bean

There are three compelling reasons that common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) should be sequenced. First, common bean is a crop that provides critical protein and calories worldwide and particularly to many underdeveloped countries. The sequence will provide powerful tools to improve agronomic and nutritional traits so important to maintaining and improving the nutritional status of these individuals. Second, while common bean is $1.2 billion crop in the US, it is losing competitiveness because it does not have the biotechnology tools available to other crops. The sequence will greatly facilitate marker assisted selection, an important genetic alternative to improve the economic competitive of the crop. And third, as a close relative of soybean, cowpea, and pigeonpea, its sequence is importance for the study of the function of genes within this economically important group of legumes.

The current mainstream approach to genome sequencing is the whole genome shotgun (WGS) method based on the Sanger technique. Yet, whole genome sequencing appears to be at a tipping point where new approaches, such as the 454 pyrosequencing method, are being adopted by offering a cost advantage along with increased speed and throughput. It is unclear how successful the long (400-500 pb) 454 reads will be in determining the full sequence of relative moderate size genome such as P. vulgaris. Therefore we will be implementing a hybrid approach that will combine long 454 reads with a modest Sanger sequencing effort.

Our goal is to produce a reference version of the common bean genome that covers nearly all of the unique genomic sequence and is anchored into place on the chromosomes using the newly built genetic map.

This work was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture under Grant No. 2009-65300-05639  USDA-CSREES