Diversidade genética e caracterização química em pimentas do gênero Capsicum

Abstract

Capsicum sp. Peppers are important vegetables in family farming, both socially and economically. Domesticated species are consumed worldwide and characterized as functional foods to human health. The species of Capsicum are widely cultivated in tropical countries, which allows the emergence of significant genetic diversity within the genus and within the species. Thus, it is necessary to carry out studies on the diversity of materials present in germplasm banks in order to characterize them for breeding programs, contributing to obtain superior genotypes to get the needs of consumers and producers. The goal of this work was to evaluate the diversity and characterize 23 genotypes of pepers of the genus Capsicum spp. acquired from the Universidade Federal do Maranhão and the Instituto Federal do Espírito Santo. Diversity evaluations carried out using 13 ISSR (Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat) markers. For the morphoagronomic characterization we used 14 discriminating descriptors for the genus Capsicum, and the chemical analysis consisted of the quantification of the following chemical compounds: β- carotene, capsanthin, vitamin C, phenolic compounds total, besides the evaluation of the antioxidant activity inherent to the fruits of the peppers. The 23 accessions evaluated grouped with the three commercial varieties, used as control, according to the similarities presented by the morphological and molecular analyzes. The joint and molecular analyzes were efficient in the analysis of diversity and characterization of the 26 genotypes. The IFCA 13 genotype was the highlighted as being the most divergent within the group studied. No were found duplicates among the accesses of this study. Further studies involving productivity and resistance analysis, for example, should be carried out to assess the agricultural potential of genotypes. The genotypes of C. annuum species evaluated showed characteristics wanted by the ornamental plant market, as small, so these genotypes are promising for use as ornamental plants. Chemical analysis realized in this study were efficient in showing the diversity among the 26 characterized genotypes. The results found revealed promising genotypes regarding the composition of functional compounds produced.