Abstract
Different cultivars of common bean are grown in Lesotho for home consumption originating from
Zambia, South Africa and America. These have created a wide genetic diversity and duplication such
that it is not easy to distinguish them. The study was conducted in Lusaka to distinguish the same
common bean cultivars using morphological markers and to estimate their degree of similarity. A
collection of 42 cultivars were included in the study. Seventeen morphological characters were used
following International Plant Genetic Resource Unit descriptor (1982). Data collected were analysed
using principal component and cluster analysis. Principal component analysis was used to identify the
characters which caused major variation among cultivars. Out of 10 principal components generated
from 17 characters, only the first three components which constituted 54.57% of the total variation
were considered for analysis. The first, second and third components accounted for 23.23%, 16.80%
and 14.54%, respectively. The characters responsible for separation along the first principal
component and loadings (parenthesis) were plant height (0.57), growth habit (0.55) and seed pattern (-
0.27).The characters influencing separation along the second principal component include number of
flowers per node (0.50), number of locules per pod (0.44), seed colour (0.44) and leaflet length (0.30).
Along the third principal component, cultivars were separated according to the pod colour (0.64) and
flower colour (0.14).Thirty-five individual cultivars and two groups of cultivars were distinguished by
cluster analysis. One group consisted of three cultivars from Zambia, while the other group consisted
of two cultivars from Zambia and two from Lesotho.
M. E. Morojele, D. N. M. Mbewe. (2015) GENETIC DIVERSITY OF COMMON BEANS AS DETERMINED USING MORPHOLOGICAL MARKERS, Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology, Volume 3, Issue 1.
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