Unlike other crops, access to genetic and genomic tools enabling more efficient breeding is limited in pepper. The majority of the research in pepper is based on analyzing traits in biparental populations, and in addition, limited access to pathogen strains or races reduces the wide-scale applicability of the developed molecular markers across populations and breeding programs. In contrast to research in bi-parental populations, genome-wide association studies utilizes the broad range of genetic diversity present in natural populations, including historical recombination events, which allows for the identification of more alleles potentially associated with the trait. A well-designed core collection captures the diversity that is present in an entire germplasm collection, which is crucial for preserving unique alleles and traits and facilitates more efficient phenotyping and GWAS. A core collection of 423 accessions was assembled representing the genetic diversity present in the G2P-SOL global collection of 10,038 wild and cultivated Capsicum accessions from 10 major genebanks .The G2P-SOL Capsicum core collection has been phenotyped for resistance to anthracnose, bacterial wilt, phytophthora blight, and Chili leaf curl virus, as well as for heat stress component traits in several locations in Asia. Genome wide association studies have revealed multiple significant loci associated with the individual traits. These loci are being utilized in the breeding program to more efficiently develop and release cultivars.
