Analysis of molecular diversity of Capsicum spp. to identify redundant accessions and duplicates within accessions from a germplasm bank

Abstract: Assessment of genetic diversity and identification of redundant accessions in seed banks are important to minimize the risk of gene loss in collections and to decrease costs in the management of germplasm banks. Current study used markers at DNA level to evaluate genetic diversity and identify whether there are duplicate accessions of Capsicum spp. in the collections of an active germplasm bank. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA markers using touchdown-polymerase chain reaction method evaluated genetic diversity and identified duplicates in ten accessions of Capsicum spp. Higher genetic diversity has been detected in C. annuum rather than in the species C. chinense and C. baccatum. DNA amplified segments revealed high genetic divergence showing that accessions of C. annuum, C. chinense and C. baccatum were separately grouped after data analysis with three software programs. Accessions of C. baccatum var. pendulum and C. annuum var. glabriusculum were the least similar. Since rates were less than 60% between accessions of C. chinense and C. annuum, they revealed low identity of amplified DNA segments among the three Capsicum species. Redundance in four accessions of C. chinense and in five accessions of C. annuum was not detected. On the other hand, duplicates within accessions C. chinense (50%), C. annuum var. glabrisculum (5%) and C. baccatum var. pendulum (75%) were reported in the Capsicum active germplasm bank.