IN VITRO PROPAGATION OF AN EGYPTIAN LANDRACE OF GREEN PEPPER AND BREEDING FOR TOLERANCE TO HEAT AND DROUGHT STRESSES

Abstract

There has been a renewed interest in landraces and local cultivars of crop species as source of genetic variation for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. In our study we used a pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) landrace collected from different farms at Assiut. Shoot-buds on the basal 5 to 7 stem nodes from plants at the end of the growing season were used to propagate desirable individuals in vitro. The greatest number of shoots were produced in cultures on Murashige and Skoog (MS) nutrient medium containing 3 μM benzyladenine (BA) alone or plus 0.9 μM Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and on the medium with 5 μM BA alone or plus 1.5 μM IAA. Useful variation was observed under heat and drought stress conditions. Population raised from bulked seeds of tested progenies showed significant increase in percentage of fruit set, fruit weight, number of fruits, and fruit yield compared to population of the original landrace collection. This in vitro method would be useful to conserve field collections from such germplasm. Copies of desired variants can be grown under favorable conditions for producing explants of anthers to use in gamete sorting and developing double-haploid lines. Chemical names used: N-(phenylmethyl1H-[benzyladenine, BA], 1H-indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA).