TY - EJOU AU - G, Castañón-Najera AU - Ramírez-Meraz, M AU - Ruiz-Salazar, R AU - Mayek-Pérez, N TI - AFLP marker application to explore heterosis in Capsicum spp. T2 - Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany PY - 2011 VL - 80 IS - all SN - 1851-5657 AB - The chili varieties: (1) Mirador, (2) Piquín huasteco, (3) Pico paloma, (4) Ozulamero and (5) Chilpaya Tabasco were crossed in a diallel without reciprocal crosses to produce 10 F1 hybrid combinations. While the previous varieties (1), (2) and (4) belong to Capsicum annuum varieties, (3) and (5) pertain to Caspicum frutescens. The four study AFLP markers amplified 282 bands or fragments, and of these, 264 were polymorphic. The estimated Genetic Parameters showed that there was dominance based on the genetic distances in the study DNA fragments. Heritability, which was estimated in a narrow sense, was moderate (0.53). This indicated the presence of dominant effects. Cluster analysis based on genetic distances separated parents and crosses of C. annuum from those of C. frutescens, confirming the genomic differences between the two species. Our results indicate that the Hayman methodology is appropriate to estimate heterosis and other important genetic parameters such as heritability. However, future research on Capsicum spp. should also (1) measure useful morphological characters, (2) estimate general and specific combining abilities, and (3) analyze simultaneously molecular and morphological information. These works would contribute to select the best parents in a breeding program for chili. KW - Molecular analysis KW - Diallel crosses KW - Epistasis KW - Dominance KW - Chili species DO - 10.32604/phyton.2011.80.053