Meet the Beans

By Sophia Terrill (team member)

The project has started! We began growing 10 different bean plants on May 1 to see which beans would grow the quickest and with the highest viability! We purchased the beans in bulk from a local grocery store and selected many common beans varieties, similar to that used in the paper we are basing our studies. These beans are also important to our project because they are popular for food consumption, which is relevant to our goal of creating sustainable ways to support food production. Our bean varieties include Orca, Soy, two types of Garbanzo, Navy, Pink, Black, Kidney, and Adzuki beans and Black-Eyed Peas. The first set of beans was grown on damp paper towels in a covered container. They grew very well and by Day 6, almost every bean had germinated. As you can see, our beans are making some great growth!

 

 

We read that the 2016 Yale iGEM team used seed germination pouches and decided to make our own! This method would allow beans to grow in a vertical orientation, similar to how they would grow in nature, and allow us to watch root growth. This involved growing seeds in plastic bags with moist paper towels in a cool dark climate. The second round of beans was planted on May 2nd, and we watched them grow for 12 days. There were varying amounts of mold and root growth on different bean varieties but most of the beans grew long, beautiful roots!

 

On Day 12, we transplanted the beans sprouts to potting soil. The plants are very happy in their new home and even started growing leaves. We have determined that the wild-type bean varieties purchased from our local grocery store had high viability and will grow roots, stalks, and leaves. Currently, our favorite beans are navy and black beans, because they grow roots faster than the other varieties. We also like Anasazi beans (also known as orca beans), which have a black and white pattern like our local beloved whales.