The objective of this work was to analyze genetical diversity of twenty-two accessions of lima-beans (Phaseolus lunatus L.), coming from the States of Ceará, Paraíba and Pernambuco, Brazil, part of the Germoplasm Collection of the Agronomy Department of Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, by RAPD markers, as well as to characterize fourteen of these genotypes by means of morphological markers. To characterize the genetic variability, sixty polymorphic loci were used. By the sample analysis the formation of two groups and four subgroups was observed and high genetic variability among the accessions was noticed. The genetically closer genotypes were FA-01 and FA-02, from Ceará State, with 85% of similarity, and the less similar ones were FA-07 and FA-20, from Ceará and Pernambuco States, respectively, with 35.9% similarity. Related to the morphological characterization, it was noticed that the genotype FA-13 in comparison to others presented higher values of seed weight, number of seeds per pod, length and width of pod, while the FA-16 genotype showed lower values for weight of one hundred seeds, very small seeds, lower number of pods per plant, lower length of pod and lower production of seed per plant.
genetic diversity; lima-beans; RAPD markers; morphological markers
