Reference genomes of two promising Phaseolus vulgaris common bean varieties for breeding purposes KATB1 and NABE12C

These two varieties are promising lines for future breeding of common beans for Africa. KATB1 is a yellow medium size commercial type highly demanded in east Africa with bush growth habit. It’s a released variety in Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Burundi. This line is early maturing (60-65 days) and drought tolerant with high yield potential. The best performance of this line is achieved when grown at altitudes between 900 to 1600 meters above sea level. It is moderately tolerant to anthracnose and angular leaf spot root rot but susceptible to Pythium and Fusarium root rot diseases. Characteristics like sweet grain taste, low flatulence, and broth color after cooking make this line a highly desirable market-demanded variety (Amongi et al., 2020; Dryland Seed, 2020; Ndimbo et al., 2022). The NABE12C (MAC31) line is a large seeded sugar (cranberry) bean with climbing growth habit and important market characteristic, i.e., cream/beige with pink to purplish speckles. The grain is considered very tasty, making favorable thick broth when cooked. The grain type of NABE12C is highly demanded in east and southern Africa. The variety is relatively tolerant to anthracnose, Pythium and Fusarium root rot and common bacterial blight (CBB) and is officially released in Uganda (Blair et al., 2008; https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/65909; https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/graduate-scaling-great-heights-growing-climbing-bean-in-uganda). The best performance of this line is achieved when grown at altitudes between 900-1800 meters above sea level. Reference genomes of a combination of a bush and a climbing bean type of demanded grain market class, i.e., medium sized yellow and large sized sugar/cranberry are useful molecular tools for breeding purposes towards market directed genetics.