Establishment of a Core Collection of Bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Germplasm in the National Plant Gene Bank of Iran

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Abstract

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the most important food legumes worldwide. The development of a core collection could facilitate easier access to bean genetic resources and enhance their applications in crop improvement program. In this article development of a core collection from 1425 accessions of common bean germplasm available from the National Plant Gene Bank of Iran (NPGGBI) was described. Accessions were clustered by Ward`s method based on geographical origin and 17 qualitative morphological traits data. Some accessions randomly selected from each cluster according to origin of construct core collection. Mean comparisons using Mann-Whitney U test, variances comparison by Leven's test and comparison of frequency distribution by X2 test indicated that core collection was similar to whole collection. The Shannon-Weaver diversity index (H (were also confirmed the similarity of collection and core collection based on different traits.

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