Abstract
Abstract Capsicum pubescens is a cultivated hot chili pepper, consumed in Latin American cuisine as a distinctive ingredient, and popularly known as “locoto” or “rocoto”. This taxon is also an outstanding source of resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses as well as other valuable fruit traits for breeding of the worldwidely cultivated C. annuum and related species. In this study, the chromosome complement of C. pubescens cv. “locoto” (2n = 24) was deeply characterized through a sequential combination of conventional and molecular cytogenetics approaches comprising: Ag-NOR staining, heterochromatic fluorescent C-DAPI, DAPI/AMD-CMA/DA bandings, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of Capsicum-derived probes of the 5S and 18S-25S rRNA genes and different regions of spacers of the ribosomal unit, as well as telomeric probe. The markers identified were systematically combined with morphological karyotype parameters - number, size, centromeres, satellites - to produce a physical map which allowed the identification of several landmarks in each individual chromosome. The reference chromosomal map of C. pubescens here presented is the most comprehensively developed in Capsicum so far. It is envisioned that this chromosomal map will serve as a reference framework for the upcoming sequencing projects and as starting point to assist future genetic mapping of important agronomic traits.
Highlights
Capsicum pubescens Ruiz et Pav. is a domesticated chili pepper found from the Central American highlands in southern Mexico to the Andean region in southern Bolivia (Eshbaugh 1979; Bosland & Votava 2012)
Plants from germinated seeds cultivated at the experimental fields of the IPAVEINTA, in the locality of Córdoba, Argentina, were subjected to taxonomical identification according to diagnostic characters considered by Eshbaugh (1979) and a herbarium specimen was deposited at CORD (Thiers, continuously updated) under accession E.A
C-DAPI fluorescent banding to reveal total heterochromatic loci (Het) - number, distribution, size - in metaphase chromosomes was carried out following the C-banding protocol of Schwarzacher et al (1980) with the modification introduced by Lambrou & Ehrendorfer (2000) that includes a final staining with 4–6-diamidino2-phenylindole (DAPI) instead of Giemsa
Summary
Capsicum pubescens Ruiz et Pav. is a domesticated chili pepper found from the Central American highlands in southern Mexico to the Andean region in southern Bolivia (Eshbaugh 1979; Bosland & Votava 2012). This hot chili pepper is extensively grown in small family plots and home gardens (Bosland & Votava 2012) and is only known as a cultivated crop (Moscone et al 2007). Because of the particular flavour of its fruits, there is an increasing interest and demand, mostly by European speciality markets, of this hot chili pepper (Rodríguez-Burruezo et al 2010)
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