USAGE OF CALLUS CULTURE IN SELECTION OF PEPPER AND TOMATO

The technology of somaclonal variants is based on the naturally arising genetic variations, which are observed in plants regenerated by somatic cells, grown up in tissue culture.
Receiving this type of frequent genetic variability appears rather effective for selection in regenerated plants of minor modifications (change of color and weight of fruits, productivity, time of flowering, etc.) In the Biotechnology Laboratory of the Scientific Center of Vegetable and Industrial Crops in Armenia the program of researches with application of methods in vitro, is conducted particularly for callus culture.
The purpose of scientific works was receiving an initial material for selection in leading agricultural crops – sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). For reception of somaclonal variants we applied callus culture in vitro.
In the progeny R₀-R₁ we have noted morphological changes.
Inheritance of the revealed changes in somaclonal variants has been studied during three generations (R₂-R₄). Two most perspective variants of sweet pepper and six variants of tomato have been selected, which differed from initial genotypes by fruits color, shape and weight, maturity period and productivity.
Now somaclonal variants of pepper and tomato served as an initial material for greenhouse cultivars of sweet pepper ‘Sate’ and ‘Manana’, and indeterminate tomato cultivar ‘Lusarpy F₁’. Nowadays they are cultivated in most greenhouses of Armenia.

Eurasian Symposium on Vegetables and Greens

G.J. Sargsyan, I.V. Vardanian, Z.E. Harutynyan

tissue culture, explants type, callogenesis, plant growth regulators, somaclonal variation, ‘Sate’, ‘Manana’, ‘Lusarpy F₁‘

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1033.10