Genetic variability in peppers accessions based on morphological, biochemical and molecular traits

Leonel Vinicius Constantino,Juliano Tadeu Vilela Resende,Ligia Erpen-Dalla Corte,Douglas Mariani Zeffa,Viviane Yumi Baba,Leandro Simões Azeredo Gonçalves,Renata Mussoi Giacomin,Anderson Yusei Suzuki Fukuji

doi:10.1590/1678-4499.20190525

Leonel Vinicius Constantino, Juliano Tadeu Vilela Resende + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-4499.20190525

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Abstract

The evaluation of genetic diversity among the accessions of a germplasm collection results in information about promising materials suitable for breeding programs. Thus, the goal of this work was to characterize Capsicum baccatum accessions from different Brazilian regions, based on morphological, biochemical and molecular traits, aiming to support chili pepper breeding programs. The fruits were morphologically characterized based on fruit length, diameter, fresh mass and pericarp thickness, and biochemically analyzed for their content in ascorbic and phenolic acids, flavonoid and antioxidant activity by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH•) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. All phenotypic traits showed significant differences among the chili pepper accessions, indicating a wide variability. The fruits were also characterized using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) molecular markers. The combination of six AFLP primers resulted in 1117 bands, 1033 of which were polymorphic. Divergence between accessions was estimated by the Ward’s hierarchical agglomerative clustering method, resulting in three and two clusters for fruit phenotypic traits and molecular data, respectively. In Bayesian analysis, molecular data also clustered the accessions in two groups. There was no association between the phenotypic descriptors and AFLP markers, indicating that both characterizations are important to better understand the genetic variability. Furthermore, it was not possible to group the accessions solely based on their origin for neither phenotypic descriptors and AFLP markers. The accessions G1, G5, G6, and G20 showed interesting characteristics and can be used in breeding programs, aiming the development of Capsicum spp. cultivars with desirable morphological and biochemical traits.

Highlights

The demand on quality is evident in the current context of fruit and vegetable consumers perspective, which includes beyond crop-specific standards attributes based on visual criteria to encompass new requirements related to nutritional and the functional aspects (Kyriacou and Rouphael 2018)
Characterization of the C. baccatum germplasm, including morphological, nutritional, and organoleptic descriptors is an interesting strategy to conserve the genotypes of a species, in the face of constant processes of environmental degradation and seek promising materials for the breeding programs, especially those focused on fruit quality
The fruit length (FL) ranged from 1.66 to 11.10 cm and, according to this attribute, the accessions were classified into six groups

Summary

Introduction

The demand on quality is evident in the current context of fruit and vegetable consumers perspective, which includes beyond crop-specific standards attributes based on visual criteria (size, shape, color and absence of defects) to encompass new requirements related to nutritional and the functional aspects (Kyriacou and Rouphael 2018). Pepper (Capsicum spp.) is an economically important horticultural crop that has been widely used in worldwide cuisines as both a vegetable (bell peppers) and as spices for condiments purposes (chili peppers) (Zimmer et al 2012). The Capsicum genus comprises 38 described species, among them some domesticated as C. annuum L., C. chinense Jacq., C. frutescens L., C. pubescens Ruiz et Pav. and C. baccatum L., with wide morphological variation (Nicolaï et al 2013).

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