Use of the advanced backcross-QTL method to transfer seed mineral accumulation nutrition traits from wild to Andean cultivated common beans

Iron deficiency anemia and zinc deficiency are major health concerns across the world and can be addressed by biofortification breeding of higher mineral concentration in staple crops, such as common bean. Wild common beans have for the most part had higher average seed mineral concentration than cultivars of this species but have small un-commercial seeds. A logical approach for the transfer of the seed mineral trait from wild beans to cultivated beans is through the advanced backcross breeding approach. The goal of this study was to analyze a population of 138 BC(2)F(3:5) introgression lines derived from the very high iron wild genotype G10022 backcrossed into the genetic background of the commercial-type variety 'Cerinza', a large-red seeded bush bean cultivar of the Andean genepool. In addition to measuring seed mineral accumulation traits and the quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling these traits we were interested in simultaneously testing the adaptation of the introgression lines in two replicated yield trials. We found the cross to have high polymorphism and constructed an anchored microsatellite map for the population that was 1,554-cM long and covered all 11 linkage groups of the common bean genome. Through composite interval mapping (CIM) and single point analysis (SPA), we identified associations of markers and mineral traits on b01, b06, b07, b08, b10 and b11 for seed iron concentration, and markers on b01, b04 and b10 for seed zinc concentration. The b07 and b08 QTL aligned with previous QTL for iron concentration. A large number of QTL were found for seed weight (9 with CIM and 36 with SPA analysis) and correlations between seed size and mineral content affected the identification of iron and zinc contents' QTL on many linkage groups. Segregation distortion around domestication genes made some areas difficult to introgress. However, in conclusion, the advanced backcross program produced some introgression lines with high mineral accumulation traits using a wild donor parent.