The Evolution of Chili Peppers (Capsicum - Solanaceae): a Cytogenetic Perspective

MOSCONE EA; SCALDAFERRO MA; GABRIELE M; CECCHINI NM; SÁNCHEZ GARCÍA Y; DAVIÑA JR; DUCASSE DA; BARBOZA GE ; EHRENFORFER F

ACTA HORTICULTURAE

International Society for Horticultural Science

Año: 2007 vol. 745

0567-7572

apsicum (chili peppers) is a New World genus with five crop species of great economic importance for food and spices. An up-to-date summary of the karyotypic knowledge is presented, including data on classical staining (chromosome number, size and morphology), silver impregnation (number and position of active nucleolar organizing regions), fluorescent chromosome banding (amount, distribution and type of constitutive heterochromatin), nuclear DNA content measurements (genome size), and fluorescent in situ hybridization (physical mapping of telomeric sequences). Reported chromosome numbers for 23 of the 31 recognized species allow us to distinguish two species groups: one with 2n=2x=24 (13 species) and another with 2n=2x=26 (10 species). The 2n=24 species have comparatively symmetrical karyotypes, mostly with 11 metacentric and 1 subtelocentric (submetacentric) pairs. In contrast, the 2n=26 taxa exhibit more asymmetrical complements, with more submetacentric (subtelocentric) chromosome