Common bean is one of the most important leguminous crops in the world. Studies indicated that common bean originated from two indepentent centers of diversit,and had respectively been domesticated and cultivated in the two centers before they were introduced to the rest of the world.During the long process of domestication and cultivation, evolutionary forces have brought about morphological, physiological and genctic changes in the common bean hence forming abundant genetic resources for this species. This article gives a brief review of the research progress on the above subjects and proposes future perspectives for the evaluation and utilization of the common bean genetic resources.