Candidate Gene Analysis of Carotenoids Synthesis in pepper

Abstract

Carotenoids are vital pigments responsible for yellow, orange and red color in plants. In Capsicum, capsanthin-capsorubin synthase (CCS), phytoene synthase (PSY), β-Carotene hydroxylase (Crtz-2) and lycopene β-cyclase (Lcyb) were identified to be involved in the carotenoids synthesis pathway. Previously molecular markers based on the CCS and PSY genes have been developed to distinguish fruit colors in pepper. However, these markers can distinguish fruit colors of limited pepper genotypes. Therefore, there is need of developing additional markers for accurate prediction of fruit colors using molecular markers. In this study the CCS, PSY, Crtz-2, and Lcyb genes of 119 pepper accessions were sequenced to identify the genes affecting the fruit color. Sequencing was performed using single molecule real time (SMRT) sequencing technology. We performed two step PCR experiment to reduce sequencing cost. With barcode sequence of primers in the second PCR, we were able to sequence all the samples at one time and detected sequence of each samples. We will develop markers using sequences of in the CCS, PSY, Crtz-2, and Lcyb genes and these markers will be used for detecting the fruit colors of pepper.