TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GENE-BASED ECO-PHYSIOLOGY MODEL FOR COMMON BEAN: GENOTYPE BY ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences By Raphael Wesly Colbert In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major Department: Plant Sciences November 2014 Fargo, North Dakota