Field-grown donor plants and arabinogalactan proteins improve microspore embryogenesis in sweet pepper ( Capsicum annuum L.)

An effective culture system for producing embryos was developed from isolated microspores of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). The present work aimed to define exogenous arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) on the embryogenesis of sweet pepper under the growth environments of donor plants. The experiments were performed with the cultivars Arancia, California wonder, Californium, Camelot, Inspiration, Plato, and Taranto under three different growth environments of the donor plants. The impacts of the different numbers of sweet pepper ovaries (0, 5, 10, and 15) were evaluated on microspore embryogenesis of cultivars in a factorial design with five replications. The simultaneous application of 10 ovaries in stress (sucrose starvation; temperature) and induction media resulted in the highest embryogenesis of the seven aforementioned cultivars under field conditions. Also, the impacts of 0, 80, 120, and 200 mg L−1 gum arabic were studied on embryogenesis in stress and induction media. The treatments containing 120 mg L−1 gum arabic showed the highest embryogenesis across all cultivars, except the California Wonder cultivar in the field conditions. Also, the simultaneous impact of the number of ovaries and concentrations of gum arabic on embryogenesis were studied. A combination of ten ovaries and 120 mg L−1 gum arabic generated the highest embryogenesis in the majority of cultivars. The results revealed that ovaries of sweet pepper and gum arabic had a significant impact on the efficiency of microspore embryogenesis in sweet pepper plants under field conditions.