I would like to thank Dr. Kan Wang for providing me with these projects, guidance, and support, allowing me to pursue my education. I would also like to thank Dr. Shui-zhang Fei and Dr. Mark Westgate for taking the time to serve on my committee and to critically evaluate my work. I would additionally like to thank Dr. Westgate for assisting with the field for growing common bean and for providing seeds for common bean experiments. I would like to thank Dr. James Kelly from Michigan State for providing common bean seeds for additional cultivars. I would like to thank the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University for providing me a place to pursue my education and research. I would like to thank NIFA (2012-03598) for funding my common bean research. I would like to thank all the members of the Plant Transformation Facility (Diane Luth, Bronwyn Frame, Marcy Main, and Dan Little) for guidance with my projects, especially Diane Luth. I would also like to thank current lab members for their assistance (Jennifer Raji, Abbey Johnson, Juan-Carlos Martinez, and Keunsub Lee), especially Keunsub Lee for his copy number analysis.