Where do beans come from?

Beans ( Phaselolus vulgaris ), also known as beans, faves or beans , do not have their origin in the slopes of the Andes (Peru and Ecuador) as previously thought, but rather come from a common ancestor that arose in Mexico, according to a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Elena Bitocchi and her team from the Polytechnic University of the Marche (Italy), together with Danish and American researchers, analyzed the nucleotides at five positions of a gene using a large collection of beans that represented the complete geographic distribution of the wild forms of that species. .

The bean, with its many aliases, is a key ingredient in the diet of hundreds of millions of people around the world, providing them with protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber. "Knowing the origins and evolution of the species we cultivate is important to be able to conserve them", the authors recall.