Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Protein Content of Scandinavian Peas (Pisum sativum)

We produced homogeneous lines of 227 pea accessions from the Nordic Genetic Resource Center via single seed descent. The genetic diversity among these, mostly Scandinavian accessions, was investigated using three microsatellite markers, A9, AC58 and AA5. The microsatellites were highly informative and separated 153 of 194 accessions on a Neighbor Joining topology. The high polymorphism information content (PIC) values between 0.87 and 0.91 indicated that the gene bank material contains a large number of pea accessions with different breeding histories. The peas were grown in the field for two years and seed protein content showed variation between 9.3% and 34.1% over the years and accessions, respectively. The mean thousand seed weight was 152.05 g. More than 10 accessions had a protein content above 28%, showing that the collection has potential as breeding nursery for high-protein pea cultivars.