Common Bean as an Emerging Model Grain Legume. Legumes: Types, Nutritional Composition And Health Benefits.

VIRGINIA DALLA VIA; CAROLINA RÍPODAS; JOAQUÍN CLÚA; CANDELA NARDUZZI; MAURICIO REYNOSO; MARIO AGUILAR; MARÍA EUGENIA ZANETTI; FLAVIO BLANCO

Legumes: Types, Nutritional Composition And Health Benefits.

Nova Publishing

Lugar: New York; Año: 2013; p. 1 - 2

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a legume plant original from America. It was domesticated independently in the Mesoamerican and Andean geographical centers. From there, it was disseminated to the rest of the world, becoming the most important grain legume in terms of human alimentation. Beans from this plant are the most important source of proteins in the diet of undeveloped and developing countries, representing more than 50% of the grains consumed around the world. Common bean, as well as many other legumes, is able to establish a symbiotic association with soil bacteria, allowing atmospheric nitrogen to be incorporated into ecosystems and soils, having a crucial impact in agriculture. In the last years, many genetic tools have been developed for this species, including sequencing of the genome, developing of transformation and reverse genetic techniques, germoplasm resources and databases of expression libraries. The existence of two genetic pools allowed establishing an experimental model to study genetic affinity between legumes and rhizobia, contributing to understand the genetic bases of nitrogen fixation efficiency.