GENETIC DIVERSITY OF COMMON BEAN (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) LANDRACES GROWN IN NORTHEAST ANATOLIA OF TURKEY ASSESSED WITH SIMPLE SEQUENCE REPEAT MARKERS

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker system was used to analyze the genetic diversity of 38 common bean landraces grown in Northern Anatolia Region and their relationship to twelve nationally registered cultivars. A total of 72 DNA fragments across all materials were scored using 30 primers pairs. More than 97% of the amplification products showed polymorphism, indicating high variation at the DNA level among these accessions. Pair-wise genetic similarity ranged from 0.218 to 0.759, with a mean of 0.585. Based on the SSR markers, two major clusters were formed of 50 genotypes investigated. A majority of the commercial cultivars (66.6%) and landrace accessions (84.2%) were clustered into second group, whereas, small portion of commercial cultivars (33.4%) and landrace accessions (15.7%) were clustered in to first group. A Mantel's test showed significant correlation between SSR distance matrix and cophenetic matrices. Considerable variation existed within the genotypes collected from Northeast Anatolia Region and registered cultivars that can be exploited for breeding programs.