Phytic acid is the major storage form of phosphorus in seeds of legumes and cereals. Since phytate can form complexes with proteins and minerals, reducing the digestive availability of these nutrients, it is usually regarded as an antinutrient, although recent work indicates that it has important beneficial roles as an antioxidant and anticarcinogen. Therefore, there is an interest in the assessment and manipulation of phytate contents in important food grains such as beans. The objective of this work was to compare eleven dry bean genotypes with regard to grain contents of P, phytate, inorganic P and protein and to examine if differences between genotypes could be explained by differences in grain protein content or in uptake and partitioning of P. Plants were grown in a greenhouse in pots containing soil and commercial substrate amended with 7.4 and 37 mg P.dm-3. The experimental setup was a random, complete block design with five replications. Genetic variability in grain phytate contents was observed. At the higher dose of P fertilization, genotype Una presented the highest phytate content (1.48 %) and the highest fraction of P as phytate (72 %), whereas these features were lowest in Paraiso (0.70 % and 47 %, respectively). Inorganic P made up 8 % of total P in Paraiso. A correlation between phytate and protein contents among genotypes was significant (r = 0.73) only under the higher dose of P fertilization. With the exception of genotype 4AP, differences in phytate content could not be explained by differences in uptake and partitioning of P in the plant. In the case of Paraiso, it is inferred that the lower phytate contents were due to differences in the metabolism of P and dry matter accumulation in the grain.
Inorganic phosphorus; Phaseolus; phytic acid; protein
