A research team has sequenced and studied the genome of the common bean,
Phaseolus vulgaris. The results of their study shed light on nitrogen
fixation, disease resistance, and how beans were domesticated. In the
process, the team identified a handful of genes involved in nitrogen
movement, which could be helpful to farmers who intercrop beans with other
crops that don't fix nitrogen.

The research team, led by researchers at the University of Georgia, U.S.
Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Hudson Alpha Institute for
Biotechnology and North Dakota State University, also looked into the common
bean's origin and domestication. Though believed to have originated in
Mexico more than 100,000 years ago, it was domesticated separately at two
different geographic locations in Mesoamerica and the southern Andes.

They also discovered dense clusters of genes related to disease resistance
within the common bean's chromosomes; certain genes that are shared by both
the common bean and soybean, its important relative; and evidence that the
common bean's genome evolved more rapidly than did the soybean genome, after
the two species parted ways on the evolutionary pathway nearly 20 million
years ago.

Results of the sequencing project have been published in the June 8 edition
of the journal
<[isaaa.us5.list-manage2.com]
d=b27d510a45&e=3f99440571> Nature Genetics (doi:10.1038/ng.3008).

[jgi.doe.gov]