t r a c tThe Ganxet bean is a highly appreciated landrace characterized by markedly curved seeds, high protein content, low seed-coat perceptibility, and low mealiness. To analyze the genetic control of seed curvature and of morphological, agronomical, chemical, and sensory traits related to high quality in these beans, we used an Additive, Dominance, and Additive × Additive model applied to Ganxet and Faba Asturiana varieties, their F 1 , F 2 , BC 1 P 1 , and BC 1 P 2 progenies. The narrow-sense heritability (h 2 ) of seed curvature was 0.72. The h 2 of the number of seeds per pod was 0.75. The h 2 of area and length of the seed were 0.55 and 0.60, respectively. The h 2 for seed width, 100-seed weight, pod length, Mg content, and sensory traits mealiness, seed-coat roughness and seedcoat perceptibility, ranged from 0.3 to 0.4. Seed curvature behaved like a continuously variable trait that is probably controlled by 3 loci. The expression of this trait depends partly on the environment, and its expression is greatest in environments that favor larger seeds. Seed curvature also had strong additive genetic correlations with protein content (positive) and with mealiness (negative).Given the ease of determining seed curvature and its apparently simple control, this trait could be used as an easy-to-select morphological marker to transfer high protein content and low mealiness to other varieties by backcross procedures, regardless of whether the correlation between traits is due to pleiotropic or linkage effects.© 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.
IntroductionBeans are the most important legume in the human diet (Broughton et al., 2003). They are consumed throughout the world, but especially in developing countries (Shimelis and Rakshit, 2005). Beans are nutritious, having 2 or 3 times as much protein as cereals (Siddiq and Uebersax, 2013), and are easily adapted to many environments. In developed countries, there is a growing interest in beans due to their nutraceutical properties (Hayat et al., 2014) and importance in crop rotation. However, if beans are to regain a predominant role in developed countries' diets, their nutritional and environmental strengths must be accompanied by improvements in culinary and sensory characteristics (cooking time, seed-coat Abbreviation: ADAA, additive dominance and additive × additive. * Corresponding author.E-mail addresses: ana.rivera@upc.edu, riverpertu@hotmail.com (A. Rivera).perception, aroma, flavor, mealiness, breakage during cooking) to appeal to increasingly demanding consumers (Casañas et al., 2006;Ghasemlou et al., 2013;Mkanda et al., 2007). Thus, the challenge is to obtain varieties that meet nutritional needs while fulfilling consumers' sensory demands. To meet this challenge, landraces can provide excellent starting material for breeding programs because some of them retain great sensory and nutritional potential.The Ganxet landrace derives from the Mesoamerican gene pool (Sánchez et al., 2007) and is cultivated in Catalonia (northeastern Spain). Ganxet seeds are white,...