Analysis of nutritional quality traits in an andean recombinant inbred line population

Introduction: Legumes provide essential micronutrients that are found only in low amounts in the cereals or root crops (Wang et al, 2003). An ongoing project at CIAT has shown that bean seeds are variable in the amount of minerals (iron, zinc and other elements), vitamins and sulfur amino acids that they contain and that these traits are likely to be inherited quantitatively. In this study we analyzed iron and zinc content in an Andean recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a cross between G21242, a Colombian cream mottled climbing bean with high seed iron/zinc content and G21078, an Argentinean cream seeded climbing bean with low seed iron/zinc content.