Abstract
A remarkable portion of crop genetic diversity is represented by landraces and obsolete cultivars, that have not yet been integrated into the collections of genetic resources in genebanks. Fortunately, they are still maintained by small farmers in rural areas. Their acquisition is an important goal for collecting expeditions, followed by the evaluation of their genetic background. Molecular markers are powerful tools to evaluate the effectiveness of acquisition of new genetic variants. This approach was used for common bean landraces, that were collected through expeditions in the Slovak and Ukrainian Carpathians. In this study, microsatellite markers, developed from expressed sequence tags, were used for genotyping the collected materials. The sub-population of collected landraces contained higher total and average number of different alleles in comparison to equally large sub-populations of already-maintained cultivars. The same was true for the Shannon’s information index, observed heterozygosity, and expected heterozygosity. Both sub-populations showed the presence of private alleles: Average values of 0.500 and 0.833 private alleles per genotype were detected in landraces, and cultivars, respectively. Obtained results emphasized the importance of collecting expeditions to specific regions where landraces are cultivated, even at the present time. The effectiveness of the acquisition of new genetic variability can be determined by molecular tools, as confirmed by microsatellite markers in this study.
Highlights
The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a worldwide cultivated crop and important source of foods rich in proteins
This approach was used for common bean landraces, that were collected through expeditions in the Slovak and Ukrainian Carpathians
The entire European continent can be regarded as one of the secondary diversification centers for Phaseolus vulgaris L. and European common bean landraces are of great value for bean breeding [4,5]
Summary
The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a worldwide cultivated crop and important source of foods rich in proteins. During more than five centuries after introduction into Europe specific common bean variants have been created. This development was the consequence of the adaptation to specific and variable soils, climatic conditions, new pathogens and pests, later divergent and extensive breeding process, as well as new cultivation practices. The entire European continent can be regarded as one of the secondary diversification centers for Phaseolus vulgaris L. and European common bean landraces are of great value for bean breeding [4,5]. Different developments occurred in Africa and China, where the distribution of the Mesoamerican and Andean common bean gene pools was more uneven [11,12]. Genetic variation is currently maintained in the European collections of bean genetic resources, that has increased to such an extent, that it is possible to create core collections in common bean [13]
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