GENETIC DIVERSITY IN POD AND SEED QUALITY TRAITS OF COMMON BEAN POPULATIONS FROM NORTHWESTERN SPAIN

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an important food in the northw est of Spain where it is consumed as either green pods or dry seeds af ter cooking. Quality properties play a major role in cultivar acceptan ce by processors and consumers. To determine if sufficient variation i n important culinary and nutritional traits exists within common bean, fifty-nine populations (plus five commercial cultivars) were grown in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula in three different environment s and evaluated for sixteen fresh pod and dry seed quality traits. Pop ulations showed significant differences for pod curvature, length/widt h and width/thickness ratios of pod and seed, pod and seed texture, vo lume, hardness, seed coat percentage and water absorption of seed, cru de protein, crude fat, crude fiber, teal sugars and starch content. Ge notype x environment interaction was significant for fresh pod traits such as curvature, length/width and width/thickness ratios, and textur e, and for dry seed traits such as length/width and width/thickness ra tios, volume, hardness and water absorption. Estimates of heritabiliti es and constancies (genotypic/environmental variance) were higher than 0.5 and 1.0 respectively for pod curvature, length/width and width/th ickness ratios of pod and seed, seed volume and seed water absorption. There were high correlations of pod texture with seed length/width an d width-thickness ratios, seed coat percentage, seed water absorption, crude fat, total sugars, starch content and crude fiber. Pod texture could be used as an important parameter for evaluating both seed culin ary and nutritional quality. In addition, 17 populations showed promis e as parental material in a breeding program for pod and seed culinary quality and protein content. The culinary and nutritional quality pot ential of the accessions such as PHA-0171, PHA-0253 and PHA-0257 which are known as Alubias de rinon could be the base material in a breedin g program to obtain accessions with a good seed quality.