Breeding of South Eastern Anatolia pepper populations by dihaploidisation method and comparison with traditional methods

ABSTRACT PhD. THESIS BREEDING OF SOUTH EASTERN ANATOLIA PEPPER POPULATIONS BY MHAPLOIDISATION METHOD AND COMPARISON WITH TRADITIONAL METHODS NURAY ÇÖMLEKÇİO?LU DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE INSTITUTE OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF ÇUKUROVA Supervisor : Prof Dr. Kazım ABAK Year 2001, Pages: 349 Jury : Prof. Dr. Kazım ABAK Prof. Dr. Şebnem ELLİALTIOGLU Doç. Dr. Saadet BÜYÜKALACA The aims of this study were to develop inbred lines from Şanlıurfa and Kahramanmaraş pepper populations (both Capsicum annuum L.) to determine the possibilities of using anther culture technique to develop new cultivars and to estimate of variation within population and within inbred line. Selected plants are self-pollinated and 298 lines were obtained from Şanlıurfa population. Seeds of two or more self-pollinated plants were bulked within each lines and self-pollination and selection were continued until sixth generation. After selection, the inbred lines number were reduced to nine. The seeds from self- poliinated plants were harvested individually within lines and nine families were established in sixth selfed generation. In Kahramanmaraş population, the seeds collected from different five locations were investigated as different population. Elite plants from each population were self-pollinated and five lines obtained. At third selfed generation the seeds of HIself-pollinated plants were harvested individually within line and five families were established. Five culture medium were tried to produce haploid plants by anther culture. The best results were obtained from MS medium containing 4 mg/1 NAA, 0.1 mg/1 BAP, 10 mg/1 AgN03 and 30 g/1 sucrose and anthers were incubated at 35 °C during the first 2 days in the dark then transferred to 28 °C and 16 h at photoperiod. Embryo formation in pepper was effected significantly by genotype, culture medium and incubation condations. Chromosome number in root tip was counted, stomata dimensions and number of chloroplast in stomata guard cells were measured for determination of ploidy level of plants obtained via anther culture. In addition to these some morphological characteristics of plants were investigated. In two populations, chloroplasts number of guard cells were significantly difFerent in haploid and diploid plants. Stomata density was also found as a differentiation criterion for haploid and diploid plants. It was assumed that the dihaploid lines obtained by anther culture consisted of completely homo2ygous plants and variance within dihaploid lines was considered as solely environmental. In this case, in Şanlıurfa population, determined total variance were composed of environmental and genetic variance for traits of flower bud diameter, petal number per flower and anther number per flower in sixth selfed lines. The variances of other traits analyzed in this study such as fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit yield per plant, seed yield per plant, 1000-seed weight days to first flowering, leaf length, leaf width and plant height etc. were completely environmental. Hence it was accepted that plants within line were genetically identical. At the population level, variation in fruit weight, fruit length, pericarp thickness, fruit diameter, number of carpel, flower bud length and index and leaf index were mostly caused by environment and genetic variance was lower, for the other characters tested were solely environmental. In Kahramanmaraş populations and 3 generations selfed lines, variances for flower bud length, flower bud index, leaf length, number of carpel, fruit yield per plant, fruit weight, fruit length, seed yield per plant traits were environmental and the plants within line were genetically identical. For the other characters tested the variances were both environmental and genetic. Key words. Capsicum annuum, breeding, selection, haploidy, variance. rv