Assessment of genetic diversity of selected Capsicum chinense and C. frutescens accessions derived through morphological and molecular characterization

Capsicum chinense and C. frutescens are common cultivated and consumed chilli species in some parts of Sri Lanka. Thirteen Capsicum accessions were characterized by morphological and molecular means to assess genetic diversity in plants by randomized complete block design with two replicates during yala 2016 and maha 2016/17 at the Field Crops Research and Development Institute, Mahailluppallama. Twelve morphological characters were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate methods. ANOVA revealed significant differences among genotypes for most of the tested traits. Principal component (PC) analysis explained more than 71% of total variability for the first 3 components among the traits of genotypes evaluated. Plant height, width, days to 50% flowering, pods per plant and yield were positively correlated with PC1. Dendrogram based on morphological and SSRs analyses showed two and three clusters respectively at 0.1 similarity levels and both analysis showed comparable results. A total of 45 alleles were detected in 15 microsatellite markers (M1 to M15) across the 13 Capsicum accessions. Out of these 15 SSR loci, 14 loci showed polymorphism. Genetic diversity ranged from 0.00 to 0.75 with an average of 0.51. High allelic richness was observed in M 10 and M 14. The PIC value varied from 0.13 to 0.70 with an average of 0.44. To date molecular characterization data of Capsicum accessions in Sri Lanka is limited. Therefore, this study will pave the way for a detailed characterization of C. chinense and C. frutescence accessions using morphological descriptors and SSR molecular markers.