Proceedings of the 57th Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics Annual Congress Foggia, – 16/19 September, 2013 ISBN 978-88-904570-3-6

Poster Communication Abstract – 5.24

THE COMMON BEAN "FAGIOLINA ARSOLANA": A LANDRACE CULTIVATED AT ARSOLI (VALLE ANIENE, )

PIERGIOVANNI A.R., LIOI L.

Istituto di Genetica Vegetale (IGV), CNR, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari (Italy) biochemical markers, germplasm characterisation, Phaseolus vulgaris L., seed quality

In the last decades several studies dealing with characterisation of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) landraces, still cultivated in marginal areas of Italian peninsula, have been published. These researches evidenced the existence of a high variation in Italian common bean germplasm. This greatly substantiates the importance of actions aimed to the safeguard of the autochthonous common bean germplasm. A common bean named “Fagiolina Arsolana” is grown from long time at Arsoli, a village located in Aniene Valley (Lazio region). The seed is white, small, flat, with kidney or truncate shape. Recently, the local community of Arsoli has undertaken actions devoted to safeguard and promotion of “Fagiolina Arsolana” on-farm conservation. A multidisciplinary characterisation of this common bean to support these actions was carried out at IGV-CNR. Seeds obtained from some Arsoli farmers were analysed. Electrophoretic pattern of the main seed storage proteins were studied. Seed quality was investigated by analysing the harvest of three subsequent growing seasons (2009-2011). Phaseolin protein pattern of S type allowed the assignation of “Fagiolina Arsolana” to the Mesoamerican gene pool. As concerns the phytohemagglutinin protein fraction three patterns were observed: SG2, Kernan and Pinto UI 111, with a frequency equal to 35, 25 and 50%, respectively. The high frequency of Pinto UI 111 type, lacking erythroagglutinating activity, is unusual in common bean germplasm. It should be noticed that in Lazio region there are others white seeded landraces belonging to Mesoamerican gene pool such as: “Fagiolo del Purgatorio”, “Fagiolo a pisello” and a landrace named “Pallini o Tondini”. They are cultivated at Gradoli, Colle di Tora and , respectively, but none have flat seeds. Seed quality revealed a high rate of seed hydration during the soaking, but a low percentage (8-10 %) of hard seeds was detected. Over three growing seasons, the swelling index recorded after 24h of soaking is high (mean value = 101 %); the mean coat percentage is 65.8 g/kg and the mean cooking time (31 min) resulted comparable to those of other small seeded types. The good nutritional value of “Fagiolina Arsolana” is testified by protein content higher than 250 g/kg, an in vitro digestibility higher than 80%, a medium-low level of trypsin inhibitors (21.8 TIU/mg ss). On the bases of seed quality and culinary characteristics the promotion of “Fagiolina Arsolana” as niche product is justified. In this study, a local community submitted the own common bean landrace to the attention of the genebank staff. A similar kind of cooperation was fully effective to characterise an autochthonous landrace little investigated and to help the efforts in planning adequate safeguard actions.

This study was partially supported from di Arsoli.