Androgenesis in Capsicum annuum L.—Effects of Carbohydrate and Carbon Dioxide Enrichment

Abstract

A new and simple protocol for androgenesis in bell pepper is described. The initial medium, a modification of Nitsch and Nitsch's H medium, consisted of a two-phase system of semi-solid and liquid medium and contained maltose as carbon source. The total number of embryos formed was greater with maltose at 40 g·L-1, but embryos developed better at 10 to 20 g·L-1. Depending on the genotype, the number of embryos and plants recovered ranged from 3 to 750 and 0.25 to 8, respectively, per 100 flowers. Further increases in the number of embryos (up to 3561 per 100 flowers) and plants (up to 23 per 100 flowers) could be attained by flushing cultures with air enriched with CO2 at 900 μL·L-1. The ploidy level and the microspore origin of the recovered plants were determined by flow cytometry and zymograms for isocitrate dehydrogenase. Nearly 65% of the acclimated plants had undergone spontaneous doubling of the chromosome number, as confirmed by flow cytometry of leaf nuclei. Isocitrate dehydrogenase zymograms demonstrated that plants originated from microspores and that the two parental alleles were equally represented among the haploid and dihaploid plants.