Common Bean
Phaseolus vugaris L.

The protein rich common bean (Phaseolus vugaris L.) is one of nature’s greatest foods.  (Image at right: A bean plant; image courtesy of Dr. Pastor-Corales.) Consumed as seeds of dry beans or as pods of snap beans, beans are a significant source of protein, dietary fiber, calories, minerals, and vitamins especially folate. Beans are also recognized as a major health food.  They are a superior source of fiber, and a source of complex carbohydrates. Their regular consumption lowers the unfavorable component of blood cholesterol and reduces the risk of cancer.

The USDA bean project at Beltsville has a long and rich history of significant accomplishments that have benefited bean science and, above all, have contributed to a better and more sustainable bean production in the United States.  Since 1995, this project has released ten germplasm lines of dry beans with rust and mosaic resistance.  The bean project endeavors to use traditional and molecular tools in plant pathology and breeding to improve the sustainability of bean production by combining stable resistance to major bean pathogens.  Some of the very important objectives of the bean project are: 

• Monitor and study the pathogenic variability of the bean rust fungus
• Discover and characterize new rust resistance genes effective against many pathogenic races of the highly variable rust pathogen
• Develop edible dry bean (pinto, great northern, navy, red and black) and processing and fresh market (snap bean, green and wax) germplasm with comprehensive rust and bean common and golden mosaic resistances
• Release such germplasm with the comprehensive disease resistances combined with other desired characteristics. 

In the future, the bean project aims to incorporate resistance to the highly variable bean anthracnose fungus and to the common bacterial blight pathogens. 

In the Vegetable Lab, Dr. Pastor-Corrales works on beans.