C-DAPI banding in species of Capsicum annuum complex (C. annuum, C. chinense, C. frutescens).

ROMERO, M. V.; SCALDAFERRO, M.; MOSCONE, E.

San Pablo

Simposio; 3ª Reunión Brasilera de Citogenética, IV Simposio Latinoamericano de Citogenética y Evolución.; 2013

Sociedad Brasileira de Genética

Capsicum L., is a small genus native from America with high economic importance since 5 of the 32 existing species were domesticated and are used for human consumption as a condiment ("chili", "chilli") or vegetables ("peppers "), and also for medicinal and ornamental purposes. The C. annuum complex comprises three species, C. annuum, C. chinense and C. frutescens. In C. annuum, particularly, wild forms are distinguished as taxonomic variety var. glabriusculum (Dunal) Heiser & Pickersgill, growing from the southern United States and Mexico to Peru, while the cultivated forms are included in the var. annuum. In the other entities, C. chinense and C. frutescens, with predominantly South American distribution and center of diversity in the Amazon, is not clear if natural populations are originally wild or escaped crop populations. This work aims to characterize the constitutive heterochromatin in mitotic chromosomes of the C. annuum complex by C-banding technique with DAPI modification instead of Giemsa after hydrolysis with barium, and compare them with the presence, amount and distribution of the fluorescence banding results CMA / DA / DAPI obtained previously by our working group. The banding pattern found was similar, but not completely, with that observed by staining CMA / DA / DAPI. However additional regions were found constitutive heterochromatin terminally, not listed with triple staining method, on the long arm of chromosome 6 of C. chinense cv. Red Caribbean Habanero; long arm of pair no. 2, short arm of chromosomes no. 3, 5, 8 and 11 and both arms of pairs no. 9 and 10 of C. frutescens NMCA 40025. Thus the news found markers demonstrated be useful for chromosome pairs recognition. Moreover, the presence of additional bands, suggests the existence of other types of heterochromatin that cannot be exposed by triple staining CDD.