Genomic Regions Associated with Resistance to Anthracnose in the Guatemalan Climbing Bean ( Phaseolus Vulgaris L.) Germplasm Collection

The anthracnose disease caused by the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (Sacc & Magnus) Briosi & Cavara, is a disease that causes significant seed yield losses in common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) worldwide. A germplasm collection of climbing beans from Guatemala was evaluated in the greenhouse for their reaction to race 73 of C. lindemuthianum that occurs in many growing areas worldwide. This germplasm mostly represents the so-called race Guatemala. Approximately 10% of 369 climbing bean accessions showed no symptoms (score of 1 on a 1–9 anthracnose severity visual score scale). Genome wide association study (GWAS) results using 78,754 SNP markers indicated that genomic regions with resistance to race 73 of C. lindemuthianum exist in Pv04 and Pv07, which have been previously reported. We also report four candidate genes located on Pv04 and Pv07 suspected to be responsible for anthracnose resistance, based on their proximity to significantly associated SNP markers.