Transferability of microsatellite markers of Capsicum annuum L. to C. frutescens L. and C. chinense Jacq.

In order to support further genetic, diversity, and phylogeny studies of Capsicum species, the transferability of a Capsicum annuum L. simple sequence repeat (SSR) microsatellite set was analyzed for C. frutescens L. ("malagueta" and "tabasco" peppers) and C. chinense Jacq. (smell peppers, among other types). A total of 185 SSR primers were evaluated in 12 accessions from 115 C. frutescens L. and 480 C. chinense Jacq, representing different types within each species. Transferability to C. frutescens L. and C. chinense Jacq. occurred for 116 primers (62.7%). Nineteen (16.37%) were polymorphic in C. frutescens L. and 36 (31.03%) in C. chinense Jacq., 17 of which were coincident and could be used to analyze samples obtained for the 2 species. Among these primers, CA49 showed a different amplitude range of alleles between the 2 species (130-132 base pairs for C. frutescens L. and 120-128 base pairs for C. chinense Jacq.), and could differentiate the species. A total of 55 alleles were identified among the 19 polymorphic SSR loci among accessions of C. frutescens L., with the number of alleles per locus ranging from 2 to 5, a mean of 2.89, and the polymorphic information content ranging from 0.30 to 0.65. The number of alleles identified in C. chinense Jacq. was 119, ranging from 2 to 5 alleles per locus, an average of 3.30, and polymorphic information content from 0.19 to 0.68. The C. annuum L. SSR primers were most often transfer-able and polymorphic for C. frutescens L. and C. chinense Jacq., and we present a set of SSR for each species.