Beans are often grown in regions with climates that are susceptible to drought during the cultivation period. Consequently, it is important to identify bean accessions tolerant to drought conditions and assess the effect of drought on seeds’ nutraceutical properties. This study evaluated the effect of drought during different development stages (NES = never stressed; ALS = always stressed; SBF = stressed before flowering; SAF = stressed after flowering) on the yield and nutraceutical properties of six local bean varieties: Fasolo del Diavolo, Gialet, Posenati, Secle, D’oro, and Maron. Analysis of variance indicated that Gialet was not significantly affected by drought treatments, and Posenati under SBF and NES treatments had greater yields than under ALS and SAF treatments, whereas Secle under SBF produced 80% more seeds than under NES. Total phenols, antioxidant capacity, and calcium content were significantly different among the local varieties. Yield was significantly and positively correlated with seed calcium content and significantly and negatively correlated with protein, total phenols, and antioxidant capacity. The interaction between local varieties and treatment significantly affected seeds’ Zn content. Gialet and Maron seeds’ Zn contents were about 60 mg kg−1, almost double the average of commercial varieties. In summary, this study paves the way to the identification of potential bean varieties resistant to drought. Further molecular studies will help support these findings.
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an essential source of food proteins and an important component of sustainable agriculture systems around the world. Thus, conserving and exploiting the genetic materials of this crop species play an important role in achieving global food safety and security through the preservation of functional and serependic opportunities afforded by plant species diversity. Our research aimed to collect and perform agronomic, morpho-phenological, molecular-genetic, and nutraceutical characterizations of common bean accessions, including lowland and mountain Venetian niche landraces (ancient farmer populations) and Italian elite lineages (old breeder selections). Molecular characterization with SSR and SNP markers grouped these accessions into two well-separated clusters that were linked to the original Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools, which was consistent with the outputs of ancestral analysis. Genetic diversity in the two main clusters was not distributed equally the Andean gene pool was found to be much more uniform than the Mesoamerican pool. Additional subdivision resulted in subclusters, supporting the existence of six varietal groups. Accessions were selected according to preliminary investigations and historical records and cultivated in two contrasting Venetian environments: sea-level and mountain territories. We found that the environment significantly affected some nutraceutical properties of the seeds, mainly protein and starch contents. The antioxidant capacity was found significantly greater at sea level for climbing accessions and in the mountains for dwarf accessions. The seed yield at sea level was halved than mountain due to a seeds reduction in weight, volume, size and density. At sea level, bean landraces tended to have extended flowering periods and shorter fresh pod periods. The seed yield was positively correlated with the length of the period during which plants had fresh pods and negatively correlated with the length of the flowering period. Thus, the agronomic performance of these genetic resources showed their strong connection and adaptation to mountainous environments. On the whole, the genetic-molecular information put together for these univocal bean entries was combined with overall results from plant and seed analyses to select and transform the best accessions into commercial varieties (i.e., pure lines) suitable for wider cultivation.
Sugarcane is the world’s largest crop by production quantity. In Brazil, the sugarcane cultivation requires 30-70% less nitrogen than in other countries, due to the biological nitrogen fixation. Nitrospirillum amazonense is an N-fixing bacterium that has proven to increase plant growth and yields of sugarcane in greenhouse experiments. However, studies on field conditions are very scarce. For these reasons, this study aimed to assess the impact of different doses of a pre-commercial product, Aprinza®, containing N. amazonense on quality and quantitative parameters of the cultivar RB867515 in field conditions. The plant height, number of internodes, stem yield and sugar yield were measured. The leaf nutrient content was analyzed 60, 90 and 180 days after planting and the plant nutrient content was analyzed after harvest. The inoculation of N. amazonense did not affect the leaf and the stem nutrient content positively. The stem yield was increased 27.5 tons ha-1 (20%) and the total recoverable sugar yield increased 4.6 tons ha-1 (25%), compared to the control, by using 1 liter of Aprinza® per hectare. Therefore, N. amazonense can increase sugarcane stem and sugar yields in sandy soils with low nitrogen application, reducing the environmental impacts of the sugarcane cultivation system.
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