Resistance to Anthracnose Rot Disease in Capsicum

Pepper (Capsicum spp.) is an important vegetable crop worldwide with high economic and nutritional value. The Capsicum genus comprises more than 30 species, of which C. annuum, C. chinense, C. baccatum, C. frutescens, and C. pubescens are the five domesticated ones. Anthracnose fruit rot, caused by Colletotrichum spp., is one of the most destructive fungal diseases of pepper. In this review, we compiled up-to-date information from 40 publications on anthracnose resistance in Capsicum species. In total, 375 accessions were described as showing different levels of resistance against Colletotrichum spp. These accessions belonged to different species, including C. annuum (160), C. baccatum (86), C. chacoense (4), C. chinense (90), and C. frutescens (16), as well as 19 accessions of which the species were not reported. High levels of resistance were mainly present in C. baccatum and C. chinense. For some of the resistant accessions, resistance genes or quantitative trait loci (QTL) were reported. Using associated molecular markers, we located 31 QTLs and 17 resistance-related genes in the recently published Capsicum genomes, including C. annuum CM334 version 1.6, C. chinense version 1.2, and C. baccatum version 1.2. Our results could be helpful for making use of some reported accessions in the breeding of pepper cultivars with resistance to anthracnose rot disease.