Genetic variability in Brazilian Capsicum baccatum germplasm collection assessed by morphological fruit traits and AFLP markers

Abstract

Capsicum baccatum is one of the main pepper species grown and consumed in South America. In Brazil, it is commonly cultivated by family farmers, using mostly the genotypes bishop's hat genotypes (locally cambuci) and red chili pepper (dedo-de-moça). This study had the objective of characterizing 116 C. baccatum accessions from different regions of Brazil, based on morphological fruit descriptors and AFLP (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms) markers. Broad phenotypic variability among the C. baccatum accessions was detected when using morphological fruit descriptors. The Ward modified location model (Ward-MLM) discriminated five groups, based mainly on fruit shape. Six combinations of AFLP primers detected polymorphism in 97.93% of the 2466 identified bands, indicating the high genetic variability in the accessions. The UPGMA coincided with the Bayesian clustering analysis and three large groups were formed, separating the wild variety C. baccatum var. praetermissum from the other accessions. There was no relation between genetic distance and geographical origin of the accessions, probably due to the intense exchange of fruits and seeds between farmers. Morphological descriptors used together with AFLP markers proved efficient in detecting the levels of genetic variability among the accessions maintained in the germplasm collections. These results can be used as an additional source of helpful information to be exploited in C. baccatum breeding programs.

Biomorphological Characterization of Brazilian Capsicum Chinense Jacq. Germplasm

“…The groups obtained by Bayesian analysis were not formed exclusively by accessions from the same geographical origin. This can be attributed to seed exchange between farmers and free fruit transport between the different regions of Brazil, also indicated by Cardoso et al (2018) [12]. In contrast, Moses et al (2014) [11], studying the genetic diversity of C. chinense accessions using microsatellite molecular markers, observed the formation of two distinct genetic clusters, corresponding to the upper and lower Amazon regions, suggesting two independent domestication events or two centers of diversity in these regions.…”

“…The characterization of variability for fruit-related characteristics to select promising accessions has been also shown in other Capsicum sp. studies [10,[12][13][14]24,29,[35][36][37].…”

“…Several studies have addressed the characterization of the genetic diversity of C. chinense based on phenotypic and molecular descriptors [10,[12][13][14]24,29,[35][36][37]. However, most of them focused in fruit morphological descriptors and fewer studies have addressed a broad range of morpho-agronomic descriptors including both qualitative and quantitative traits.…”

Selection in segregating populations of ornamental pepper plants (Capsicum annuum L.) using multidimensional scaling

“…is one of the most important and most cultivated horticultural plants in the world (Bosland & Votava, 2012;Silvar & García-González, 2017). They can be used in culinary, pharmaceutical and cosmetical industries, as well as ornamental plants (Rêgo et al, 2015a;Cardoso et al, 2018).…”

Caracterización fenotípica de tres cultivares de ají dulce (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) venezolano

“…El género Capsicum posee cinco especies domesticadas, las cuales son C. annuum, C. frutescens, C. chinense, C. baccatum y C. pubescens (Shirasawa et al, 2019). En estas especies se han hecho caracterizaciones morfológicas basadas en el descriptor de IPGRI et al (1995) (Sudré et al, 2010;Baba et al, 2016;Carvalho et al, 2017;dela-Cruz-Lázaro et al, 2017;Cardoso et al, 2018;Olatunji y Afolayan, 2019). Los frutos que se derivan de estas especies son comúnmente llamados chiles, pimientos o ajíes.…”