IN VITRO PLANT REGENERATION OF CHILI PEPPER (Capsicum annuum L.) FROM COTYLEDONS AND HYPOCOTYLS CULTURE

Abstract

For modern biotechnology to be applied in a breeding program, an in vitro plant regeneration protocol is required. An efficient and reliable protocol for in vitro plant regeneration of two chili pepper cultivars, Arbol and Mirasol, was developed in this research. Hypocotyl
and cotyledon explants from 19 days-old seedlings were cultivated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, supplemented with different
concentrations of N⁶ -benzyladenine (BA) (5.9 µM to 29.3 µM), indole3-acetic acid (IAA) (0.28 µM to 5.71 µM), α-naphthaleneacetic acid
(NAA) (0.16 µM to 0.53 µM), and gibberellic acid (GA₃) (0.86 µM). All tested combinations of growth regulators induced adventitious shoot
formation in both hypocotyl and cotyledon explants. It was possible to produce up to 5.1 + 3.0 shoots per explant (cotyledon) when 17.7 µM BA and 1.71 µM IAA were used in the culture medium. This regeneration rate is higher than the rates reported for other chili pepper cultivars and tissues. Seventy percent of regenerated shoots became plants in 16 weeks; these plants had the normal morphology of a chili pepper plant and produced normal fruits.