Mapping resistance to Sclerotinia white mold in two pinto bean recombinant inbred line populations.

White mold, caused by the fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary, is a devastating disease affecting common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) production worldwide. Breeding for resistance to white mold is challenging due to its quantitative inheritance and intricate genetic mechanisms. This research aimed to validate and characterize physiological resistance in the pinto dry bean market class through greenhouse straw tests under controlled conditions and field assessments under natural environments. Classical quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping and Khufu de novo QTL-seq were employed to detect and narrow QTL intervals and identify candidate genes associated with white mold resistance in two pinto bean recombinant inbred line populations, PT9-5-6/USPT-WM-12 (P2) and PT12-37/VCP-13 (P3). Eleven QTL, five in P2 and six in P3, conditioning white mold resistance were identified. New QTL were discovered including WM1.4 and WM11.5 in P2, and WM1.5 and WM7.7 in P3. Existing major-effect QTL were validated: WM5.4 (34%-phenotypic variation explained) and WM7.4 (20%) in straw tests, and WM2.2 (15%) and WM3.1 (27%) under field conditions. QTL for avoidance traits such as resistance to lodging and late maturity overlapped WM2.2 in P2 and WM1.5, WM3.1, WM5.4, and WM7.7 in P3. WM5.4 (Pv05: 7.0-38.7 Mb) was associated with a large Phaseolus coccineus L. genome introgression in the resistant parent VCP-13. These findings offer narrowed genomic intervals and putative candidate genes for marker-assisted selection targeting white mold resistance improvement in pinto beans.