Research Article Genetic diversity among pepper (Capsicum spp.) accessions estimated by microsatellite markers

It is essential that the genetic variability of preserved accessions germplasm banks be evaluated and quantified, which allows, for example, the detection of duplicates, generating more reliable data, especially for groups of plants that have a wide genetic variability, as in the case of the Capsicum genus. . We examined the DNA from the leaves of nine accessions of Capsicum spp. from the Federal University of Maranhão Germplasm Bank. Amplification was performed using 78 microsatellite primers previously described as potential molecular markers for Capsicum accessions. Thirty-three microsatellite primers produced amplification products, seven of which were polymorphic and used to investigate genetic variability among nine accessions. The proportion of polymorphic loci in pepper accessions was estimated at 21%. A mean of 2.28 alleles was detected per polymorphic locus and the number of alleles ranged from 1 to 3. The highest effective number of alleles was 1.62, and the highest values of mean observed heterozygosity (Ho) and Shannon's diversity index (I) were 0.533 and 0.421, respectively. Private alleles were detected in two accessions: UFMA17 and UFMA35. The