Karyological studies of two hot chilli pepper cultivars from two different geographical regions of India: Bhut jolokia, Capsicum chinense Jacq. and Bullet Lanka, Capsicum annuum L.

The present paper deals with the detailed karyological studies of two hot chilli cultivars of India; one is world’s third hottest chilli Bhut jolokia (BJ) [Capsicum chinense Jacq. cultivar] collected from the hilly area of North-East India, and another is Bullet Lanka (BL) [Capsicum annuum L. cultivar] from plains of West Bengal. Comparative study showed that there was no difference in the chromosome count (2n = 24), but significant differences in chromosome characteristics were found between these two species. All 24 chromosomes of both species are metacentric with full symmetric karyotype. Both species have mono-modal chromosome with longest to shortest 5.75–4.60 µm in BJ and 8.91–6.02 µm in BL. The total chromosome length (TCL) of the haploid complements of BJ and BL are 62.56 and 87.36 μm, respectively. The total form percentage (TF %) of BJ and BL are 47.34 and 47.68 %, respectively. A pair of satellite (SAT) chromosomes with prominent secondary constriction is present in BL, but BJ does not contain any SAT chromosome. Thus, from the karyotype features, both BJ and BL exhibit close relationships which point out their probable origin from a common ancestor. Overall, the TF % and the TCL of BL was greater than BJ; indicating BL is evolutionarily slightly more advanced than BJ. © 2016, Archana Sharma Foundation of Calcutta.