ORIGINAL PAPER Comparative cytogenetic mapping between the lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.) and the common bean (P. vulgaris L.) Eliene Mariano Bonifa ´cio • Artur Fonse ˆca • Cı ´cero Almeida • Karla G. B. dos Santos • Andrea Pedrosa-Harand Received: 3 November 2011 / Accepted: 28 January 2012 / Published online: 14 February 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag 2012 Abstract The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and lima bean (P. lunatus) are among the most important legumes in terms of direct human consumption. The present work establishes a comparative cytogenetic map of P. lunatus, using previously mapped markers from P. vulgaris, in asso- ciation with analyses of heterochromatin distribution using the fluorochromes chromomycin A3 (CMA) and 4 0 ,6-dia- midino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) and localization of the 5S and 45S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) probes. Seven BACs selected from different common bean chromosomes demonstrated a repetitive pericentromeric pattern corresponding to the het- erochromatic regions revealed by CMA/DAPI and could not be mapped. The subtelomeric repetitive pattern observed for BAC 63H6 in most of the chromosome ends of common bean was not detected in lima bean, indicating lack of conservation of this subtelomeric repeat. All chromosomes could be identified and 16 single-copy clones were mapped. These results showed a significant conservation of synteny between species, although change in centromere position suggested the occurrence of pericentric inversions on chromosomes 2, 9 and 10. The low number of structural rearrangements reflects the karyotypic stability of the genus. Introduction The genus Phaseolus is especially important among the many legumes, because five of its species are cultivated for food: P. vulgaris L., P. lunatus L., P. coccineus L., P. poly- anthus Greenman, and P. acutifolius A. Gray. The common bean (P. vulgaris) is the most economically important protein source for large numbers of Latin Americans and Africans (Broughton et al. 2003). Although lima beans (P. lunatus) are less widely cultivated, they are a very important alternative source of income and food for local populations in regions such a northeastern Brazil (Oliveira et al. 2004). Both common bean and lima bean are of neo- tropical origin and can be separated into two major gene pools, in the Andes and in Mesoamerica, that are probably related to their respective independent domestication centers (Chaco ´ n et al. 2005; Serrano–Serrano et al. 2010). Diverse linkage maps based on different molecular markers have been developed for the common bean (Adam-Blondon et al. 1994; Freyre et al. 1998; Nodari et al. 1993; Vallejos et al. 1992) and these have been integrated into a chromosome map using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) (Pedrosa et al. 2003). More recently, using this same technique and genomic clones from a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library, a cytoge- netic map was constructed, correlating physical and genetic distances, establishing chromosome-specific markers, as well as characterizing the distribution of the heterochro- matic regions in the chromosome complement of this species (Fonse ˆca et al. 2010; Pedrosa-Harand et al. 2009). No genetic or cytogenetic map is currently available, however, for lima bean. BACs contain inserts with average sizes of approximately 100 kb (Men et al. 2001; Wu et al. 2004; Yang et al. 2003) and unique sequences that are generally conserved among related Communicated by B. Friebe. E. M. Bonifa ´cio Á A. Fonse ˆca Á C. Almeida Á K. G. B. dos Santos Á A. Pedrosa-Harand (&) Laboratory of Plant Cytogenetics, Department of Botany, Federal University of Pernambuco, Rua Nelson Chaves s/n, Recife, PE 50670-420, Brazil e-mail: andrea.pedrosaharand@pesquisador.cnpq.br Present Address: C. Almeida Laboratory of Genetics Resources, Campus Arapiraca, Federal University of Alagoas, Arapiraca, AL 57360-910, Brazil 123 Theor Appl Genet (2012) 124:1513–1520 DOI 10.1007/s00122-012-1806-x