Genetic diversity analysis of Capsicum annuum L. cultivars from Bosnia and Herzegovina using EST-SSR markers

With a significant economic value, pepper (Capsicum annuum L., Solanaceae) represents a major vegetable crop worldwide. Simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers and expressed sequence tags (EST-SSR) are powerful tools for genetic studies and the breeding of pepper. In this study, the genetic variability among local pepper species was assessed by using 8 EST/SSR markers. The pepper varieties were collected locally, based on old sorts, hybrids, and sorts found in markets, with a total of 14 pepper varieties. Mean expected heterozygosity (He) ranged from s 0.30 to 0.83 in the populations studied, whereas the mean polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.62. The average polymorphic number of alleles per primer was 2.5 per locus. The genetic relationships among the populations revealed by Neighbor-Joining dendrogram showed a clear clustering to three sub-populations making distinct clusters. As expected, all local varieties make up one cluster, together with the hybrid Istra, concluding that this hybrid evolved from the cross-breeding of local varieties. These results indicate and confirm the regional and physiological differences between the pepper sorts.