Comparison of Morphological and Physiological Traits of Chili Pepper Capsicum Annuum l. Plants Grown from Seeds and Somaclons drom Salt Stress Medium
Pages : 105-108Download PDF
Somaclonal variations are a useful source of plants with desired traits. The current experiment was conducted to assess the effect of tissue culture under salt stress on the induction of morphological, physiological and biochemical changes in the regenerated chili pepper plants in comparison to seeds derived plants. Seed derived plants and plants regenerated from salt stress calli were grown in the greenhouse until maturity. Morphological analysis of the plants showed that tissue culture derived plants had useful variations. Tissue culture plants were significantly higher in the branches number and stem diameter which reached (150.1% and 4.36 %) respectively. Also they surpassed the seed derived plants in the yield parameters which included: number of fruits, total fresh and dry fruit yield with increments of 34.6%, 13.9% and 17.8% respectively. Moreover, HPLC analysis of some biogenic compounds showed that the fruits of the tissue culture plants were rich in Ascorbic acid in an increment of 44.8% compared with the seed derived plants. Although there were no significant difference between the two plant groups in the capsaicin content, the amount of capsaicin in the total dry fruits of the tissue culture plants were higher than that of the seed grown plants which were (58.226 and 50.213 mg /dry fruits of one plant) respectively in an increment of 15.95%. Analysis of the Pungency showed that the plants of both groups are considered of high Pungency degree.
Keywords: Ascorbic acid, Capsaicin, fruits, salt stress, HPLC, Somaclonal variations