Genetic diversity of some surviving on‐farm Italian common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) landraces

Abstract

This study was undertaken to estimate the level of variation among and within 33 local populations belonging to seven Italian common bean landraces, by analysing the polymorphism of seed storage proteins, simple sequence repeat (SSR) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) molecular markers. The nutritional seed quality of the landraces studied was also investigated. Results showed that the landraces retain a considerable level of heterogeneity. Use of both biochemical and molecular approaches provided a picture of the genetic diversity of each landrace. Cluster analyses based on Nei's genetic distances and Jaccard's similarity index as defined by SSR and AFLP markers, respectively, showed that all populations clustered into two groups corresponding to the Andean and the Mesoamerican gene pools. Knowledge of the genetic structure of a landrace is fundamental in elaborating strategies, which involve the local farmers, allowing us to improve and, at the same time, safeguard the genetic integrity of landrace genetic resources.

Genetic diversity in local and commercial dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) accessions based on microsatellite markers

“…According to Gepts and Bliss (1986), dry bean genotypes with 100-seed weights less than 25 g normally belong to the Mesoamerican group and those with weights near or above 33 g, would be from the Andean group. Lioi et al (2005), evaluating the genetic diversity of 33 dry bean populations with SSR and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers, observed that both types of markers grouped the genotypes into Andean and Mesoamerican centers of origin. Benchimol et al (2007), in a study of the genetic diversity of 20 dry bean genotypes, using SSR markers, observed that two large groups were formed, one containing the Andean-origin genotypes and the other the Mesoamerican-origin genotypes.…”

Distinctiveness of Bean Landraces in Italy: the Case Study of the ‘Badda’ Bean

“…These actions are generally necessary in order to pursue landrace valorization through quality marks or the inscription to the Register of Conservation Varieties [9]. In this work, we set out to describe with morphological traits and molecular markers three accessions belonging to the 'Badda' landrace, in comparison with several reference materials and with landraces showing morphological and/or geographical proximity.…”

“…At the same time, relatively few traditional types have been accepted into alternative variety protection systems. To counteract this phenomenon, owing to the interest raised by bean landraces both as a germplasm source for breeding programs and as an added-value produce to be valorized in local and niche markets, the characterization of the Italian treasure of bean local varieties has recently been undertaken by several authors [5,[7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…Several classes of genetic markers have been used in order to infer genetic variability, phylogeny and distinctiveness in common bean, including biochemical polymorphisms [2,6,8,14] and molecular markers such as random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) [15,16], amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) [5,9,15,17,18], simple sequence repeats (SSRs) [9,10,12,18] and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) [10,16,19,20]. Here, we adopt ISSR marker analysis on DNA bulks from different plants, in order to maximize cost-effectiveness and information for landrace distinction.…”

Development of Integrated Disease Control Measures for the Valorisation of Traditional Crops in Southern Italy: The Case Study of Fagioli di Sarconi

“…The germplasm, preserved on farm by the Consorzio di Tutela dei Fagioli di Sarconi, has been extensively characterised for its biochemical and nutriceutical traits (Piergiovanni et al 2000;Lioi et al 2005;Dinelli et al 2006) but nothing is known about its response to diseases. As a matter of fact, the above varieties are plagued by the common bacterial blight (CBB), caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv.…”