Investigation of Quality and Cooking Traits Diversity in a Global Common Bean Germplasm

Common bean is a nutrient?dense food legume serving a source of food for millions of people all over the world. Quality and cooking traits are considered important criteria for the success and appealability of any crop cultivars to the end-users. In this study, we aimed to explore the cooking and quality-related traits diversity in a world common bean germplasm originated from 10 countries of world. A good range of variations were observed for all studied traits and mean fat, starch and fiber contents were 1.65 %, 42.96% and 9.23%, respectively. Genotype-140 reflected higher swelling capacity, swelling index, hydration capacity, hydration index, seed density and lesser cooking time. Correlation analysis was performed and hydration capacity showed highly significant and positive correlation with hydration index, swelling capacity and swelling index. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed and 1st five PCs accounted a total of 78.14% variations. Biplot analysis resulted a total of 51.01% variations and studied germplasm was divided on the basis of cooking and quality traits. Constellation plot divided the studied germplasm into two main clustered A and B on the basis of moisture, swelling capacity, seed density and cooking time. Genotype-39 and genotype-20 were found distant for fat contents, while genotype-24 and genotype-120 for starch contents. Therefore, these genotypes are recommended as parents for common bean breeding regarding fat and starch contents. Moreover, genotype-140 showed minimum cooking time, it should be also used as a candidate parent to develop common bean cultivars requiring lesser cooking time to save time and energy. We believe that results presented herein will be very helpful for common bean breeding community interested in quality and cooking traits.