Abstract: Sixty varieties of Phaseolus vulgaris were collected, including 43 from Heilongjiang Province, 13 from The Center of International Agriculture Tropic and 4 from Poland, which were classified as 35 for vine, 12 for dwarf and 13 for semi-wild varieties. This study was to analyze the genetic similarity and genetic distance in population and among populations of the 60 varieties and to draw the dendrogram of cluster analysis by using the markers of RAPD. Genomic DNA was extracted from young leaves of 60 Phaseolus vulgaris using a modified SDS method. 314 repeatable loci were detected through the use of 29 selected primers. The ratio of polymorphic loci was 0.854, of which 0.958 for vine, 0.733 for dwarf and 0.573 for semi-wild variety. The polymorphic loci for vine variety was the strongest among the 60 varieties. The genetic diversity of Phaseolus vulgaris was mainly distributed in vine population according to the measurement of Shannon index and Nei's index. Among the population of Phaseolus vulgaris studied so far, the level of genetic diversity for 3 populations was as follows, vine >dwarf >semi-wild.

Key words: Phaseolus vulgaris, RAPD, genetic diversity