GENETIC DIVERSITY OF HABANERO PEPPER (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) USING ISSR

Abstract

Habanero pepper (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) is distinctive of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico; however, studies of genetic diversity at the molecular level on this crop are scarce. The present study was proposed with the objective of characterizeing the genetic diversity of habanero pepper germplasm by using ISSR markers. The genetic material consisted of 60 landrace populations of habanero pepper collected in the states of Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo and Tabasco, Mexico, which were genetically analyzed with three ISSR loci. DNA was extracted by the CTAB method, and the fragments were amplified through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Data were analyzed using the POPGENE V 1.31 and NTSYS V 2.0 programs by means of principal component analysis, and the genetic relationships among populations were obtained by hierarchical cluster analysis based on the UPGMA method. A total of 32 bands were detected and 98 % of them were polymorphic. Results indicate that genetic diversity in habanero pepper is large, 95.5 % of the observed variation occurred within the populations and only 4.5 % among them. A high gene flow was detected among populations. Results of multivariate analyses suggest that a large amount habanero pepper germplasm has dispersed from the state of Yucatan to the states of Campeche, Quintana Roo and Tabasco. The distribution pattern of genetic diversity of habanero pepper populations was not associated to the provenance of the analyzed populations.