ChileanJAR

The current Chilean bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) collection is about 1110 accessions. To facilitate the characterization of this germplasm a core collection of 246 accessions was formed. Little information exists about the mineral content and other quality traits for those bean genotypes. This information could be useful to determine their quality and to promote its consumption. The objective of this work was to evaluate the variability for macro and micronutrients of a representative bean sample from a Chilean core collection and to compare them with representatives from other races. The results indicated the presence of a wide variability for some macro and micronutrients, such as N, Fe, and Zn. The protein content varied from 183.5 to 259.7 g kg-1, Fe from 68.9 to 152.4 mg kg-1, and Zn from 27.9 to 40.7 mg kg-1. This situation could allow to select those genotypes with higher elements and to improve the current cultivars. The simple correlation analysis indicated that the N content was positively correlated with protein, P, Cu, Zn, and S content and negatively correlated with B content and the C/N ratio of the seed. The Fe content was positively correlated with Mn and Ca content and Zn content was positively correlated with the N, P, Cu and S content and negatively correlated with the relation C/N ratio of bean seed. There were no significant differences between the Chilean bean genotypes compared to genotypes from other races.