Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers in the evaluation of genetic polymorphism of Egyptian Capsicum L. hybrids

Abstract

DNA samples of six hybrids of Capsicum annuum and Capsicum frutescens were analyzed with ten inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers, which produced 52 polymorphic bands out of 87 bands with polymorphism average of 60%. ISSR patterns scored five distinguishable species-specific bands; two for C. frutescens and three for C. annuum and 16 unique bands for hybrids individually that were considered as molecular markers for Egyptian hybrids. The genetic dendrogram among the materials constructed by the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic average based on the Dice coefficient showed that the six hybrids can be separated into two groups with genetic distance at 0.25. The first cluster included hybrids of C. frutescens and the other grouped those of C. annuum indicating narrow genetic base among the tested hybrids in both species. This study revealed considerable genetic diversity in the different Capsicum hybrids for conservation of genetic resources and efficient crop breeding programs.

Keywords: Capsicum, inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR), hybrids, genetic polymorphism, molecular markers

African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(7), pp. 665-669