Abstract

The runner bean is the third most economically important Phaseolus species, and it is cultivated on small-scale agriculture for the production of immature pods or to obtain dry seeds. However, despite the economic importance and agronomic potential of this species, runner bean has been little studied from the genetic standpoint. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to characterize ten selected lines of runner bean obtained from Central and Southern Chile based on morphological and agronomic traits. In addition, the genetic variability of these lines was de-termined using 12 Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers to evaluate the potential of this germplasm for breeding and commercial purposes. As a result, the lines from Central Chile were characterized and had a higher number of pods per plant compared to the Southern lines, however, the size and weight of their seeds were lower. Moreover, a low level of genetic diver-sity (He = 0.251) was encountered in this population. Finally, this is one of the first studies that generate relevant and novel information on the morphological, agronomic and genetic charac-terization of the P. coccineus germplasm present in Chile.