CONTENTS

J.Res. ANGRAU 41(2) 26-32, 2013
ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC DIVERSITY IN Capsicum spp. BY USING
MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR TOOLS
S. JOSHI, C. SARMA, C. JANGID AND H.V. VIJAYAKUMARSWAMY
Department of Plant Biotechnology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru - 560065
Date of Receipt : 22.12.2013 Date of Acceptance : 16.03.2013
ABSTRACT
Chilli belongs to the genus Capsicum which possess enormous wealth of genetic diversity. Extent of
genetic diversity determines the success level of crop improvement programme. In the present study, genotypes
were taken from different eco-geographical regions to assess genetic diversity and variability at both morphological
and molecular level. For morphological characterization different yield attributing characters were studied. For
estimation of D2 values GENRES software was used and it was found that all the exotic genotypes and genotypes
from northern part of India clustered together while, two genotypes of southern part of India fell into separate cluster.
Genetic diversity was also estimated at molecular level with the help of capsicum specific SSR markers, Genotype
EC 362980 which belongs to Capsicum chinese and EC 121489 which belongs to Capsicum baccatum were far
apart in dendrogram which showed they were less relative to each other during course of evolution. However, the
remaining genotypes which belongs to Capsicum annum came in between those two species which showed they
might have originated from Capsicum chinense and Capsicum baccatum.
Capsicum is one of the most important spices
cum vegetable crops grown in India. It belongs to
family Solanaceae comprising twenty to thirty species
of new world tropic and subtropics. Modern
taxonomists recognize five major cultivated species
of hot pepper and mild types as Capsicum annum,
Capsicum fruitescense L., Capsicum chinense
jacquin, Capsicum pendulum Wildenow and Capsicum
pubescens Ruig and Pavon (Pickersgill, 1997). Chilli
valued for its characteristic pungency, color and
flavor, besides being rich source of vitamins viz. A,
C and E. India is the largest producer of chilli in the
world (Singh, 2007). An important way to increase
productivity in any crop plant is to first select
desirable genotypes from among the existing
variations and use them in the breeding programmes.
The extent of initial variability/genetic diversity
determines the level of success of crop improvement
programmes. Diversity based on morphological
marker has limitations because of their small number,
while diversity at biochemical level is stage
depending. Molecular markers has an advantage over
these limitations. However, the present study has
been designed to use both morphological and
molecular markers to study diversity among
Capsicum germplasm.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The experimental material consists of
nineteen cultivars (Table.1) which were sown in poly
bags inside greenhouse and then transplanted to the
main field of Department of Plant Biotechnology, UAS-
GKVK, Bangalore at 30 DAS during Kharif 2010 and
molecular analysis with Capsicum specific primers
were carried out further. Genotypes were evaluated
for eight morphological characters i.e. plant height
(cm), days to 1st flowering, days to 50% flowering,
days to fruit maturity, seed weight (g), fruit length
(cm), fruit weight (g) and number of seeds per plant.
The layout of the experiment was Randomized Block
Design (RBD) with three replications. The mean
values of five randomly selected plants from each
replication were used for data analysis, range, GCV,
PCV, heritability and expected genetic advance as
percent of mean were analyzed. Morphological
diversity among the selected genotypes was
assessed with the help of GENRES software.
A total of twenty-five SSR markers which
are distributed across the genome used for
polymorphism studies (Table 2). For PCR reaction,
20l reaction mixture containing template DNA 2.0l
(20ng/l), 2.0l of both forward and reverse primer
respectively (5 pm/l). 0.20l Taq DNA polymerase
email: shourabhforbt@gmail.com
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