Evaluation of Genetic Diversity in Capsicum spp. as Revealed by RAPD Markers

Pepper (Capsicum spp.) is an important vegetable with various applications in medicinal, herbal, and cosmetic industries. The successful breeding programs for production of new cultivars are highly dependent on the availability of the genetic diversity. In this study, RAPD markers were used to determine the genetic diversity among 39 capsicum genotypes, collected from various regions of Iran and other countries. Initially, one hundred random primers were tested on the genomic DNAs to detected polymorphism among genotypes, revealing a considerable level of polymorphism with 21 primers. In total, 246 bands were produced, among them, 181 were polymorphic. The highest and the lowest level of polymorphism were detected by primers C-11 and A-07 respectively. Cluster analysis of genotypes was carried out based on polymorphic bands using Jacqard's similarity coefficient and UPGMA methods, revealing the highest genetic similarity (84%) between two bell-types. In cluster analysis based on RAPD markers at the similarity level of 61%, eight distinct groups were identified and dendrogram separated bell pepper from the chilli and ornament types. The results indicated that RAPD marker system is a suitable and efficient technique to evaluate genetic diversity in capsicum genotypes. Knowledge of wide genetic diversity observed in Capsicum spp. provides information that is important in the management of germplasm resources for future breeding programs.