Abstract:

Turkey ranks third in the world after China and Indonesia in terms of bean production. Although Turkey is not a center of originfor bean, this plant species adapted to almost all regions in Turkey and has been diversified at a significant level. Althoughit was introduce to Turkey in the 17th century, the micro-gene centers of Southeastern Anatolia and Samsun-Tokat-Amasyaprovinces have become centers of genetic diversity for bean, which is a widely grown vegetable species in Turkey. Geneticresources are of great importance both for bean breeding programmes and for gene banks. Therefore, the plant characteristicsof the collected bean genetic resources need to be determined and the characterization of bean genetic resources is carried outto reveal the amount and distribution of genetic variation among seed samples or populations. Genetic resources, collected forany species, cannot be included into the breeding programmes as long as they are not characterized, and they may disappearafterwards. Bean genetic resources can be divided into groups according to their morphological, agro-ecological and agriculturalcharacteristics. In particular, classification according to plant growth and seed types was/can be made. Phenotypic variabilityin bean populations was/can be revealed by examining UPOV, IPGRI criteria for leaves, flowers, legs and seeds. In addition,genetic variation in the bean populations can also be determined at molecular level using molecular markers. In this context,in recent years, dry and fresh bean populations in the Central Black Sea Region (Samsun, Ordu, Giresun, Tokat, Amasya),South of Eastern Anatolia (Bingöl, Bitlis, Elazığ, Malatya, Hakkari, Muş, Tunceli, Van), Eastern Anatolia (Erzurum, Bayburt)and Artvin, Trabzon, Burdur provinces in Turkey were characterized at morphological and molecular levels. In bean-growingcountries, the genetic variability of bean populations was investigated locally. In this work, previous studies dealing with themorphological and molecular characterization of bean in Turkey were investigated and the developments in recent years weresummarized.

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