Tepary Bean (Phaseolus acutifolius)

Phaseolus beans are among the major legumes for food consumption, especially in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius L. Gray) is one of the five cultivated species of the genus Phaseolus. This chapter describes an Agrobacterium -mediated transformation protocol for P. acutifolius based on cocultivation of callus, derived from cotyledonary nodes, with Agrobacterium . The selectable marker gene used is neomycin phosphotransferase II (nptII ), and the selection agent is geneticin. Selection of transgenic callus material is achieved through four to five passages on geneticin-containing medium, after which shoots are induced on medium without selection agent. The protocol as described here has been applied to transform a cultivated variety of P. acutifolius, TB1, and also with some modifications to a wild genotype, NI576 and another cultivated variety, PI440795.