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The lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) has been cultivated in Brazil since pre-colonization times and remains an important source of food and income for small farmers. Nevertheless, the species has not been extensively studied in this country. We assessed the genetic diversity of 183 lima bean landraces collected from different regions of Brazil, maintained by Embrapa, the Brazilian Government Agricultural Research Corporation. Twelve microsatellite markers were used, and seven morphological descriptors were applied. The genetic parameters suggested high diversity of the Brazilian collection of lima beans, with a mean gene diversity of 0.68 and number of alleles varying from 5 to 15 among sites. Based on a Bayesian model using molecular data, three subpopulations were identified in the sample: one predominantly from the Andean gene pool of the species (large seeds, mean 100-seed weight of 80g), and two predominantly from the Mesoamerican pool (both groups with a mean 100-seed weight of 34g). Another large group was composed of accessions classified as potential hybrids among the different sub-populations. All the accessions collected in the Krahô indigenous reserve were allocated in the Andean sub-population, and these indigenous accessions represented most of this Andean group. All the three sub-populations identified included accessions collected from far-apart sites in different geographic regions of Brazil. There was considerable introgression between the Andean and the Mesoamerican gene pools of cultivated P. lunatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary gene pool of the cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L., allotetraploid AABB) is very narrow for some important characteristics, such as resistance to pests and diseases. However, the Arachis wild diploid species, particularly those from the section Arachis, still have these characteristics. To improve peanut crops, genes from the wild species can be introgressed by backcrossing the hybrids with A. hypogaea. When diploid species whose genomes are similar to those of the cultivated peanut are crossed, sterile hybrids result. Artificially doubling the number of chromosomes of these hybrids results in fertile synthetic polyploids. The objectives of this study were: 1) to obtain progenies by crossing amphidiploids with the cultivated peanut, and 2) to characterize these two groups of materials (amphidiploids and progenies) so that they may be efficiently conserved and used. Using morphological, molecular, and pollen viability descriptors we evaluated one cultivar of A. hypogaea (IAC 503), eight synthetic amphidiploids, and the progenies resulting from four distinct combinations of crossing between IAC 503 and four amphidiploids.