Cytological and Morphological Characterization of Anther Derived Plants from Sweet Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) cv. 'Special'

Anthers of sweet pepper $F_1$ cultivar 'Special' were cultured on Dumas De Vaulx (C medium), supplemented with $0.1mgL^{-1}$ 2, 4-D and $0.1mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ kinetin with 3% sucrose, and 0.32% phytagel. The calluses obtained were further sub-cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium without growth regulators for regeneration. Regenerated plantlets were grown in plastic pots under plastic house and characterized their cytological and morphological characters in spring, 2008. Twenty percent plantlets were identified as haploid plants after chromosome and ploidy analysis. Haploid plants contained 12 chromosomes, high stomatal density with small stomatal length as compared to diploid plants. Stomatal length in haploids was 23.3% smaller than diploids. Haploid plants were characterized as small leaf and petiole size, poor vigor, thin stem and short plant height, short internodes and small flower buds, fruit size and fruit weight as compared to diploid plants and most of the haploid fruits were seedless. SP55, SP62, SP68, SP72 and SP77 are found high yielding double haploids with high total soluble content (8.6, 8.7, 9.2, 9.1 and $9.8^{\circ}Brix$, respectively) and desirable fruit shape, and recommended them to exploit as inbred lines for heterosis breeding.