In this study, genetic diversity of 119 accessions of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) from five former Yugoslav republics constituting the western Balkans was assessed by 13 microsatellite markers. This set of markers has proven before to efficiently distinguish between bean genotypes and assign them to either the Andean or the Mesoamerican gene pool of origin. In this study, 118 alleles were detected or 9.1 per locus on average. Four groups (i.e., Slovene, Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian) showed similarly high levels of genetic diversity as estimated by the number of different alleles, number of effective alleles, Shannon’s information index, and expected heterozygosity. Mildly narrower genetic diversity was identified within a group of Macedonian accessions; however, this germplasm yielded the highest number of private alleles. All five germplasms share a great portion of genetic diversity as indicated by the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA). On the basis of the scored number of migrants, we concluded that the most intensive gene flow in the region exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cluster analysis based on collected molecular data classified the accessions into two large clusters that corresponded to two gene pools of origin (i.e., Andean and Mesoamerican). We found that Andean genotypes are more prevalent than Mesoamerican in all studied countries, except Macedonia, where the two gene pools are represented evenly. This could indicate that common bean was introduced into the western Balkans mainly from the Mediterranean Basin. Bayesian cluster analysis revealed that in the area studied an additional variation exists which is related to the Andean gene pool. Different scenarios of the origin of this variation are discussed in the article.

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This work describes the incidence and distribution of the most important bean viruses in Serbia: Bean common mosaic virus (BCMV), Bean common mosaic necrosis virus (BCMNV), Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV). The viral isolates were characterized serologically and biologically. BCMV was found in the largest number of plants (30.53%), followed by BCMNV (2.67%), CMV (5.34%), and AMV (3.41%), since BYMV was not determined. Mixed viral infections were found in several samples. The RT-PCR method was used to prove that the tested isolates belong to the BCMV, family Potyviridae and strains Russian and NL-3 D. Results obtained in this work will enable further studies of the genetic variability of bean virus isolates from Serbia.

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