Ebook: Genetic Resources of Phaseolus Beans: Their maintenance, domestication, evolution and utilization

The period following the second world war has witnessed an expanding commitment to incr~ased food production in tropical countries. Public and private initiatives at the national and international levels have led to the creation of programs geared specifically towards the improvement of food crops in tropical conditions. Examples of this increased commitment are the network of international agricultural research centers and numerous bilateral aid projects. As a consequence, crop improvement has become a truly worldwide endeavor, relying on an international network of institutions and collaborators. This holds also for Phaseolus beans. Following the discovery of the Americas, Phaseolus beans became distributed on all six continents. Yet, until not so long ago, most of the research on Phaseolus improvement took place in developed countries. In recognition of the nutritional importance of Phaseolus beans in developing countries, this has changed considerably in the last years, principally perhaps through the activities of the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) and the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR). Consequently, the scope of the research on Phaseolus has broadened considerably and the number of Phaseolus researchers is larger than ever before.

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-XIII
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
A Centralized Database for the Common Bean and Its Use in Diversity Analysis....Pages 3-29
The Phaseolus World Collection....Pages 31-49
The International Phaseolus Germplasm Network....Pages 51-65
Front Matter....Pages 67-90
Morphological, Physiological and Biochemical Changes in Phaseolus Beans under Domestication....Pages 91-102
The Wild Ancestor of Phaseolus Vulgaris in South America....Pages 103-121
Phaseolin as an Evolutionary Marker....Pages 123-123
Front Matter....Pages 125-142
Genotypic and Phenotypic Markers in Common Bean....Pages 143-161
Linkage Mapping of Marker Genes in Common Bean....Pages 163-184
Genetic Structure of Bean Landraces in Malawi....Pages 185-214
A Middle American and an Andean Common Bean Gene Pool....Pages 215-241
Front Matter....Pages 243-243
Front Matter....Pages 245-327
Front Matter....Pages 329-353
Transfer of Quantitative Traits in Wide Crosses Involving the Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)....Pages 355-374
Utilization of Genetic Resources in the Development of Commericial Bean Cultivars in the U.S.A.....Pages 375-390
Back Matter....Pages 391-391
....Pages 393-407