Genetic Diversity in Common Beans (Phaseolus vulgarus L.) Collected from Different Ecological Zones of Malakand Division (A Part of the Sino Japanese Region of Pakistan)

This activity was aimed to analyze the level of genetic diversity (GD) of bean landraces collected from diverse ecological zones of Malakand division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The qualitative traits showed significant level of diversity like seed shape was determined by two alleles, seed color was defined by 13 numbers of alleles and four alleles were responsible for flower color. Similarly, the quantitative traits showed 73% diversity in the parameters studied. However, it was different in individual characters. In overall, 59% of the yield contributing traits showed significant level of correlation in the present germplasm. The dendrogram in one-way cluster analysis distributed 55 lines into 2 lineages (I and II). The former was comprised of 24% bean landraces, while the latter was comprised of 76% landraces. In correlation coefficients 45 combinations were identified having strong positive correlation. The strongest correlations (above 50%) were computed 67% of all the combinations. The principal component analysis (PCA) identified quantitative variability of 55 common bean landraces. The eigenvalues of more than 60.8% accounted a total of 70% genetic variants. Finally, it was found that a high degree of variance was identified in all germplasm collected from Malakand sections with some additional unique characteristics, such as early cooking, high productivity and protein significance as compared to other parts of the world, which could be utilized for evolving better quality and high yielding cultivars of P. vulgarus.