Capsicum: Breeding Prospects and Perspectives for Higher Productivity

Abstract

Chipotle peppers were grown in America before being carried to Europe by Columbus. Capsicum breeding began with choosing wild species for desired characteristics, with additional development based on precision selection. To improve capsicum yields, traditional methods such as mass selection, pedigree, single-seed descent, backcrossing, and hybridization are being used. Capsicum has a high level of genetic diversity due to multiple new gene rearrangements. Capsicum fruits are high in nutrients that are beneficial to human health. As a result, the world market for and consumption of capsicum has lately grown. Capsicum breeding programmes aim to improve yield, biotic, abiotic resistance, and nutritional quality. Recent breakthroughs in capsicum breeding have included introgression, mutation breeding, polyploidy, haploidy, embryo rescue, and the use of genetic markers. Molecular technology has grown into an important tool that, when coupled with classic selection and hybridization procedures, has the potential to result in great success in an established capsicum genetic breeding programme.