MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF LOCAL FABA BEAN (VICIA FABA L.) ACCESSIONS USING INTER-SIMPLE SEQUENCE REPEAT (ISSR) MARKERS

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is an agronomically important crop and has value for both food and feed. In the present study, 38 faba bean accessions were collected from 94 different provinces of Northern Cyprus. Plant materials examined to determine genetic diversity using by morphological features. The morphological characterization was performed according to UPOV (The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) and IPGR (Institute of Plant Genetic Resources) criteria. This study revealed that the 38 faba beans were classified into 15 morphologically different groups. One genotype was chosen to represent each of the 15 different groups, a totally representative 15 genotypes and a control variety were used for molecular characterization. ISSR markers were used to detect genetic diversity among the groups. Based on molecular data, a total of 108 DNA bands were obtained with 10 ISSR primers and 103 of them were polymorphic. The average polymorphism rate was determined to be 88.32%.