Breeding tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) for drought adaptation: A review

Abstract

Tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius A. Gray) is a relatively higher drought‐tolerant crop than common bean (P. vulgaris), serving as genetic resource for food and genetic enhancement of related legumes. Tepary bean production is hampered by cultivation of low yielding and abiotic stress‐susceptible cultivars. Targeted selection of agronomic, physiological and biochemical traits that maximizes yield gains using Phaseolus gene pool is useful to develop stress‐tolerant and high‐performing genotypes. The objective of this review is to provide breeding progress made regarding tepary bean improvement for drought adaptation. Agronomic, physiological and biochemical traits utilized for selection of drought‐tolerant genotypes are highlighted. Genetic and genomic resources developed for tepary bean or closely related species such as common bean useful for genetic analysis and breeding are discussed. Opportunities and challenges to facilitate breeding of tepary bean genotypes with improved abiotic stress adaptation are highlighted. This will enable development of drought‐tolerant tepary bean genotypes targeting selection of agronomic, physiological and biochemical traits. Use of genetically related and complementary Phaseolus species and marker‐assisted selection method is key to developing drought‐tolerant genotypes.

Multi-Environment Yield Components in Advanced Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) × Tepary Bean (P. acutifolius A. Gray) Interspecific Lines for Heat and Drought Tolerance

“…Across all four localities, the P. acutifolius control genotype G40001 presents the best performance, evidencing its ability to adapt to the different conditions in coastal Colombia. This behavior is consistent with extensive reports that mention the potential of the species P. acutifolius to grow and produce in warm arid and semi-arid conditions [13,14]. In addition, this study reveals that genotypes from advanced interspecific congruity backcrosses with this species exhibit promising responses to extreme conditions in Coastal Colombia, suggesting the inheritance of polygenic adaptation across interspecific boundaries.…”

“…The Tepary bean (P. acutifolius A. Gray) is an annual autogamous bean from northwest Mexico [10,11], domesticated near the arid border with the USA, and with a strong preference for hot [12] and dry environments [13,14]. Thanks to this natural adaptation, the Tepary bean is the most heat tolerant among the five cultivated species of the genus Phaseolus.…”

Allelic Diversity at Abiotic Stress Responsive Genes in Relationship to Ecological Drought Indices for Cultivated Tepary Bean, Phaseolus acutifolius A. Gray, and Its Wild Relatives

“…( P. acutifolius – parvifolius ) using geo-referenced germplasm accessions and associated climate information, and (2) to examine genetic correlations between estimated drought stress in tepary bean and its allele diversity at Asr2 , Dreb2B , and ERECTA -encoding genes, which we had previously studied and found to be significantly associated with domestication and drought tolerance in common bean. This will allow the unlocking of drought-related genetic variation hidden in tepary beans and their wild relatives [ 11 , 49 , 50 ], extending from there into early landraces that together with variation from common bean wild relatives can be used to increase the rate of genetic gain for drought tolerance via inter-specific hybridization, marker-assisted backcrossing [ 51 , 52 ], genomic editing [ 53 ], or predictive breeding [ 54 ] in any of the Phaseolus cultigens.…”

Effect of Plant Spacing on Agronomic Performance and Fodder Quality of Four Tepary Bean (Phaseolus acutifolius A. Gray) Cultivars

“…e 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 growing season differences were demonstrated by a lower average yield in the first year (321 kg/ha) compared to that (547 kg/ha) realized in the second year, which still indicates the generally low performance of tepary bean cultivars grown in Botswana. Tepary beans as an underutilized crop have not yet been improved; therefore, reports of low yields due to abiotic stress susceptible cultivars are rife in sub-Saharan Africa [39].…”