Core collection of common bean formed from traditional Brazilian germplasm

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The aim of this study was to select traditional accessions, compose a core collection of common bean, and assess the representativeness of the collection in relation to the base collection accommodated in the BAG of Embrapa using analysis strategies for multivariate models. We used data characterizing 2903 accessions from collections representing all geographic areas of Brazil regarding three morphologic descriptors (seed color, growth habit type, and seed size) and four ecogeographic descriptors (geographical areas, states, altitudes, and soil classes). A set of 400 accessions were selected using multivariate models applied to the data transformed in multibinary values. The accessions sampled had maximum similarity (100%) to the traditional collection, phenotypic diversity, and representative heterogeneity in relation to the traditional collection. In the core collection, the accessions represented 9.5% of the traditional accessions and were equivalent to 3% of the accessions of the base collection. Thus, it is possible to form a core collection that is representative of the base collection regarding genetic diversity and the conservation of rare alleles.