Profiling of 18 cultivars of Capsicum annuum L. using morphological and molecular markers

The genus Capsicum has a very complex taxonomy, and its circumscription into one species or another can vary considerably based on the characteristics of leaves, flowers and fruits. The germplasmidentification and characterization is an important link between the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources. Investigation were under taken for identification and determination of genetic variation among 18 cultivars of Capsicum annuum the family Solanaceae through morphological and ISSR (Inter Simple Sequence Repeats) markers. The mean value of plant height, canopy width, stem diameter, stem height, number of branches, pedicel length, leaf length and leaf width were 77.814 cm, 4.736 cm, 4.660 cm, 17.895 cm, 3.137, 30.04 cm, 5.34 cm, 2.12 cm respectively. Genetic analysis was made by using 12 selected ISSR markers. A total of 64 distinct DNA fragments ranging from 100 to 1500 bpwere amplified by using selected ISSR primers. The genetic similarity was evaluated on thebasis of presence or absence of the bands. The cluster analysis was made by using similarity coefficient. The cluster analysis indicated that the 18 cultivars of Capsicum annuum formed two major clusters. One major cluster had five cultivars with 60 % similarity with the second major cluster. Second major cluster had 13 cultivars with two minor clusters having 50% similarity. First minor clusterhad eight cultivars and second minor cluster had five cultivars. The three dimensional scaling of PCA analysis placed all the 18 cultivars into five groups with genetic similarity varied from 0.30 to 0.80. There was variation among the cultivars. Thus, these markers have the potential for identification of cultivars and variation among the genotypes. the results arehelpful in breeding programs as well as a major input into conservation biology of horticultural crops.

کلیدواژه ها:

Capsicum annuum ، Horticultural crop ، ISSR marker ، Polymorphism ، Genetic variability