Abstract

Common bean is one of the most important grain legume crops grown worldwide. The hilly regions of the state J&K are famous for producing high quality, tasty and highly flavoured beans. In order to characterise this huge diversity and trace the origin of common bean available in state Jammu and Kashmir, systematic efforts were made for the first time in collection, evaluation and characterization using Phaseolin locus (Phs) assays and sequencing of Internal Transcriber Sapcer (ITS) region. A set of 429 common bean lines were initially collected/procured and based on clustering analysis, a diverse set of 96 lines was selected. The PCR assay for phaseolin locus led to the characterization of 96 lines into Meso-american and Andean types. The core set of 96 lines was genotyped using genome-wide 91 SSR markers and by genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach. The genotypic data thus generated was used with trait data for Anthracnose resistance, nutritional traits like seed Zn, Fe, protein content, starch content, phenol content and soluble sugars. Study of population structure revealed two sub-populations in our core set conferring to two gene pools i.e. Mesoamerica and Andes. The information of population structure matrix, trait phenotypic data and marker genotypic data was together used in software program TASSEL and significant/major/stable marker-trait associations (MTAs) were identified. The significant and major MTAs identified during the present study will prove useful for enhancing nutritional quality in local common bean landraces of J&K.