Mesoamerican origin of the common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is revealed by sequence data

Abstract

Knowledge about the origins and evolution of crop species represents an important prerequisite for efficient conservation and use of existing plant materials. This study was designed to solve the ongoing debate on the origins of the common bean by investigating the nucleotide diversity at five gene loci of a large sample that represents the entire geographical distribution of the wild forms of this species. Our data clearly indicate a Mesoamerican origin of the common bean. They also strongly support the occurrence of a bottleneck during the formation of the Andean gene pool that predates the domestication, which was suggested by recent studies based on multilocus molecular markers. Furthermore, a remarkable result was the genetic structure that was seen for the Mesoamerican accessions, with the identification of four different genetic groups that have different relationships with the sets of wild accessions from the Andes and northern Peru–Ecuador. This finding implies that both of the gene pools from South America originated through different migration events from the Mesoamerican populations that were characteristic of central Mexico

A reference genome for common bean and genome-wide analysis of dual domestications

“…The Andean population then underwent an exponential growth phase that began ~90,000 years ago and has continued to the present. The strong predomestication bottleneck in the Andean population has been observed in previous analyses 7,28,29 ; in contrast, however, no detectable bottleneck was found for the wild Mesoamerican gene pool.…”

“…Mesoamerica has been suggested to be the center from which common bean originated, ultimately forming the distinct modern wild Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools 7 .…”

“…From these wild gene pools, nearly 8,000 years ago, common bean was independently domesticated in what is now Mexico and in South America [6][7][8][9] , and these domestication events were followed by local adaptations resulting in landraces with distinct characteristics. In what is now Mexico, common bean was likely domesticated concurrently with maize as part of the 'milpa' cropping system (featuring common bean along with maize and squash), which was adopted throughout the Americas 10 .…”

La colección INIFAP de frijol ayocote (Phaseolus coccineus L.) I. Distribución geográfica de sitios de colecta

“…Por lo que se refiere al frijol, reciente información genética, establece que el género Phaseolus es de origen mesoamericano y que la domesticación del frijol común (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) ocurrió en ambos centros de diversidad, Mesoamericano y Andino (Bitocchi et al, 2011). Por lo que se refiere al frijol ayocote, patola o patol (Phaseolus coccineus L.) sólo se han encontrado restos arqueológicos de la forma cultivada en…”

Evaluation of Common Bean (Phaseolus Vulgaris L.) Genotypes for Disease Tolerance Under Rain-Fed Conditions

“…Beans from these two centers constitute the two main biotypes; that is the Andean and Mesoamerican types. According to Bitocchi et al (2012), beans of Andean origin are predominantly large seeded types whilst Mesoamerican types vary in seed size from small to medium. Common beans are warm season plants that can be either short day or day neutral and grow in a wide range of environments from sea level to more than 3000 m above sea level (Gray, 2013).…”