'Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future' Abstracts of the XVIth EUCARPIA Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 10-14 September 2001 USE OF MOLECULAR MARKERS IN BREEDING PROGRAMME OF COMMON BEAN IN SLOVENIA J. ŠUŠTAR-VOZLIČ, V. MEGLIČ, A. MUNDA Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Hacquetova 17, Sl-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Agricultural Institute of Slovenia holds a collection of 995 common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) accessions collected from various parts of Slovenia.  A breeding programme was started to improve anthracnose resistance of autochthonous accessions and cultivars.  Based on results of a study on genetic variability of Slovene autochthonous common bean accessions using RAPD markers a set of accessions was chosen and was artificially inoculated with Colletotrichum lindemuthianum.  The differential cultivars were used to identify the pathotypes of the fungus present in Slovenia.  The same set of accessions was screened with different RAPD markers for anthracnose in Slovene genotypes and breeding lines in order to facilitate the breeding process.