Adventitious Shoot Formation and Plant Regeneration from Bell Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) Cultivars and Dihaploid Lines

Abstract

Adventitious shoots and viable plants were regenerated from bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) cultivars and dihaploid lines (DHLs) obtained from F1 hybrids via androgenesis (Dolcet-Sanjuan et al., in press). Hypocotil and cotyledon sections from in vitro-germinated seeds were used as explants. A modified MS medium (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) supplemented with IAA (0 to 3.2 μM) and BAP (0 to 100 μM) was used in a 3-week-long shoot primordia induction phase. Shoot elongation was best performed in the same basal medium, but supplemented with silver thiosulfate and GA3. Shoots were regenerated from eight selected DHLs (`C213', `C215', `C218', `C2123', `C2125', `C3111', `C3113', and `P493') and two cultivars (`Padrón' and `Yolo Wonder'). The percentage of cotyledon sections with shoot primordia after the induction phase was not genotype-dependent and always higher than with hypocotil sections (93.4% and 17.9%, respectively). The number of shoot primordia per responsive cotyledon section was also higher than with hypocotil sections (3.3 and 1.7, respectively). The genotype had a significant effect on the number of shoots regenerated per responsive cotyledon (1.1 to 5.5) or hypocotil (0.5 to 3.5) section. All adventitiously regenerated plants were fertile. This adventitious shoot regeneration protocol is being used to obtain transgenic plants from sweet bell pepper genotypes.