An InDel-based linkage map of hot pepper (Capsicum annuum)

Two independent pepper (Capsicum annuum) genomes were published recently, opening a new era of molecular genetics research on pepper. However, pepper molecular marker technologies are still mainly focusing on the simple sequence repeats derived from public database or genomic library. The development and application of the third generation marker system such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, structure variations as well as insertion/deletion polymorphisms (InDels) is still in its infancy. In the present study, we developed InDel markers for pepper genetic mapping with the convenience of two whole-genome re-sequenced inbred lines BA3 (C. annuum) and B702 (C. annuum). A total of 154,519 and 149,755 InDel (1-5 bp) sites were identified for BA3 and B702, respectively, by the alignment of re-sequencing reads to Zunla-1 reference genome. Then, 14,498 InDel sites (only 4 and 5 bp) that are different between BA3 and B702 were predicted. Finally, within a random set of 1,000 primer pairs, 251 InDel markers were validated and mapped onto a linkage map using F₂ population derived from the intraspecific cross BA3 × B702. The first InDel-based map, named as BB-InDel map, consisted of 12 linkage groups, covered a genetic distance of 1,178.01 cM and the average distance between bin markers was 5.01 cM. Compared to the Zunla-1 reference physical map, high consistency was observed on all 12 chromosomes, and the total length of scaffold anchored and physical distance covered by this map was 299.66 and 2,558.68 Mb, respectively, which accounted for 8.95 and 76.38 % of the Zunla-1 reference genome (3.35 Gb), respectively. Furthermore, 37 scaffolds (total length of 36.21 Mb) from the pseudo-chromosome (P0) of the current genome assembly were newly assigned to the corresponding chromosomes by 40 InDel markers. Thus, this map provided good genome coverage and would be useful for basic and applied research in pepper.