Dry Bean Breeding; Research Scientist, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada

Bean breeding and genetics

Research Interests:

The collaborative AAFC/University of Guelph Bean Breeding Program is responsible for breeding dry beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to develop high yielding, high quality, disease resistant cultivars of different Canadian market classes, targeted mainly for the dry bean production areas of south-western Ontario. Our research activities in support of the breeding program are focused on: 1) genetic and genomic studies of economically important traits including resistance to biotic and abiotic stress factors such as resistance to common bacterial blight (caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. Phaseoli) and anthracnose (caused by Colletotrichum lindemuthianum) and tolerance to low-nutrient availability, 2) Improving symbiotic Nitrogen fixation ability in dry beans, and 3) development and optimization of phenotypic and genotypic selection strategies for traits of major importance for the breeding program.

Selected Publications:

Xie, W., K. Yu, K. P. Pauls, A. Navabi. (2012). Application of Image Analysis in Studies of Quantitative Disease Resistance: Exemplified Using Common Bacterial Blight-Common Bean Pathosystem. Phytopathology. (accepted).

Shi, C., S. Chaudhary, K. Yu, S.J. Park, A. Navabi and P.E. McClean. (2011). Identification of candidate genes associated with CBB resistance in common bean HR45 (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) using cDNA-AFLP. Molecular Biology Reports. 38(1):75-81.
doi: 10.1007/s11033-010-0079-1

Shi, C., A. Navabi and K. Yu. (2011). Association mapping of common bacterial blight resistance QTL in Ontario bean breeding populations. BMC Plant Biology (E-journal) 11:52. doi: 10.1186/1471-2229-11-52

Navabi, A., D.E. Mather, J. Bernier, D.M. Spaner, and G.N. Atlin. (2009). QTL detection with bidirectional and unidirectional selective genotyping: marker-based and trait-based analyses. Theoretical and Applied Genetics (TAG), 118(2): 347-352.
doi: 10.1007/s00122-008-0904-2

Iqbal, M., A. Navabi, D.F. Salmon, R.-C. Yang, B.M. Murdoch, S.S. Moore and D.M. Spaner. (2007). Genetic analysis of flowering and maturity time in high latitude spring wheat. Euphytica 154(1-2): 207-218. doi: 10.1007/s10681-006-9289-y

Iqbal, M., A. Navabi, D.F. Salmon, R.-C. Yang, and D.M. Spaner. (2007). Simultaneous selection for early maturity, increased grain yield and elevated grain protein content in spring wheat. Plant Breeding 126(3): 244-250.
doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0523.2007.01346.x

Iqbal, M., A. Navabi, R.-C. Yang, D.F. Salmon and D.M. Spaner. (2007). Molecular characterization of vernalization response genes in Canadian spring wheat. Genome/Génome 50(5): 511-516.
doi: 10.1139/G07-028

Iqbal, M., A. Navabi, R.-C. Yang, D.F.Salmon and D.M. Spaner. (2007). The effect of vernalization genes on earliness and related agronomic traits of spring wheat in northern growing regions. Crop Science 47(3): 1031-1039.
doi: 10.2135/cropsci2006.09.0618