engleski

Genetic Diversity of Croatian Common Bean Landraces

In Croatia common bean is a traditional grain legume, grown by small farmers in low input agriculture systems. The majority of the production is still based on local landraces adapted to the specific growing conditions and agro-environments and showing a great morphological diversity. Local landraces are in danger of genetic erosion caused by complex socio-economic changes in rural communities. The low profitability of farms and their small size, the advanced age of farmers and the replacement of traditional landraces with modern bean cultivars and/or other more profitable crops have been identified as the major factors affecting genetic erosion. Three hundred accessions belonging to seven most widely used morphotypes (landraces) were genotyped by microsatellite markers in order to assess the genetic diversity and population structure of Croatian common bean germplasm. PCR-based phaseolin type analysis was used to trace the origin of accessions to Mesoamerican and Andean domestication centres. One-third of accessions showed phaseolin type I ("S"), predominant in germplasm of Mesoamerican origin while the rest of accessions belonged to Andean domestication centre characterized by the phaseolin type II ("H" or "C" ; 22%) or III ("T" ; 47%). A model-based structure analysis based on microsatellite markers revealed the presence of three clusters, for the most part, in congruence with the results of phaseolin type analysis.

common bean; landraces; microsatellite markers; phaseolin type

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