Pre- and postharvest anthracnose fruit rot is a serious disease of hot peppers (Capsicum annuum) throughout the world. AVRDC has pursued breeding for resistance to anthracnose for more than 10 years and has distributed a number of resistant lines in Asia and Africa. Recently AVRDC has identified highly aggressive isolates of Colletotrichum acutatum that have prompted renewed efforts to identify new anthracnose resistance genes. This study aimed to characterize resistance to specific pathogen strains in an array of newly identified breeding lines, and to validate one simple sequence repeat (SSR) and two sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers linked to the anthracnose resistance locus. Forty-four accessions and two populations (two resistant parents and one susceptible parent, to F1, four backcross populations, and two F2 populations) are currently (Spring 2012) being screened against two pathotypes of C. acutatum collected in Taiwan. Pepper entries include C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. chinense, and their inter-specific progenies. Screening methods include field screening, spray and microinjection assays on green and red-ripe fruits, and molecular assays using SSR and SCAR markers linked to anthracnose resistance. Progress will be shared on initial screening results, evaluation of horticultural characteristics, and selection of potential lines for crossing programs.