Morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization for genetic variability analysis of Capsicum annuum

Abstract

Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) with immense industrial, therapeutic and export potential is an imperative vegetable and condiment crop of the globe. The genetic variability is plinth for any breeding program. To examine the variability in chilli, 58 chilli genotypes were screened for seven agronomic and five biochemical traits along with 26 SSR markers. The germplasm displayed sufficient variability for all traits at both genotypic and phenotypic levels in consort with more than 60% heritability. Green fruit yield per plant exhibited significant correlation with primary branches per plant (rg\u2009=\u20090.428 and rp\u2009=\u20090.354), fruits per plant (rg\u2009=\u20090.410 and rp\u2009=\u20090.441), single green fruit weight (rg\u2009=\u20090.625 and rp\u2009=\u20090.602), moisture (rg\u2009=\u20090.271 and rp\u2009=\u20090.227) and chlorophyll (rg\u2009=\u20090.382 and rp\u2009=\u20090.368). The path analysis also revealed fruit yield per plant was directly influenced by primary branches per plant (0.115), fruits per plant (0.435), single green fruit weight (0.763), moisture (0.137) and chlorophyll (0.233). Manhattan distance produced 5 clusters, at a limit value of 0.14, during phenotypic based clustering. A total of 73 alleles were generated from 26 SSR primers. The mean alleles per locus were 4. The polymorphic information content (mean\u2009=\u20090.45) confined between 0.17 (CaES4787) to 0.80 (CAMS806). Merely, three groups were generated during molecular based analysis suggesting moderate diversity in the collection. A moderate correlation (0.66) was recorded between the Manhattan’s and Nei’s distance.