2018 ASHS Annual Conference

In South Korea, most of peppers (Capsicum annuum L.) are F₁ hybrid varieties, which are superior to homozygous varieties in all characteristics such as high uniformity, high productivity, and strong resistance to biotic/abiotic stress. Genic male sterility (GMS) is one of the most used methods for the economic production of hybrid seeds. A GMS gene ms₃ is known for being used to develop the European pepper varieties. The previously developed GMS3-CAPS marker is closely linked to the ms₃ gene. However, it has some problems including no polymorphism, presence of repulsion phase, and existence of recombinants, because it is just the trait-linked marker. Therefore, in this study, we constructed a fine map of ms₃ gene to develop gene-based markers. A total of 119 primer sets for high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis were designed based on the SNPs identified by next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis in the previous study. As a result, a total of 54 HRM markers were developed. Of them, 14 HRM markers were cosegregating with the phenotypes of 332 individuals segregating into male-fertile (MF) and male-sterile (MS). This fine mapping approach revealed the ms₃ gene is positioned within a region of 207.3 kb on chromosome 1, including three candidate genes. This information will be helpful to develop the ms₃ gene-based markers.