Development of a high resolution melting (HRM) marker linked to genic male sterility in Capsicum annuum L.

With 4 figures and 1 table Abstract The characteristics of male sterility (MS) are used in breeding programmes to achieve economical seed production. Male sterility is divided into genic male sterility (GMS) and cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), which are used to breed commercial pepper varieties. The CMS system, however, is not feasible in some pepper varieties, including bell peppers, because of the absence of a restorer source. GMS is thus important for seed production in bell peppers. In this study, a GMS-linked marker from bell peppers was developed using the bulked segregant analysis (BSA) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) method using F2 and sibling individuals. We used 1024 AFLP primer sets and found a polymorphism from EcoRI ACG/MseI GTT among the siblings. An internal sequence-based primer was designed from the 395 bp sequence for high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis, and the marker score of 87 of 92 F2 individuals corresponded to their phenotypes. The marker was mapped on chromosome 5 on the AC99 map.