Somatic Embryogenesis in Capsicum spp.

Abstract

Capsicum species represent a horticultural crop of great importance worldwide, which is frequently exposed to different adverse environmental abiotic or biotic factors that affect field yields. Biotechnology merges as an alternative to improve agriculturally important characteristics in Capsicum through modern approaches. Tissue culture together with molecular biology techniques is the foundation of plant biotechnology. Efficient in vitro plant regeneration protocols need to be developed and established to provide appropriate systems for micropropagation and manipulation through genetic engineering for modern crop improvement programs. Organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis are the two ways of generating entire plants in vitro. Somatic embryogenesis, the asexual process of producing bipolar structures that resemble the sexually generated zygotic embryos, has been described for a number of plant species; however, in the case of Capsicum species the in vitro embryogenesis systems have faced recalcitrancy problems. In this chapter, the information on somatic embryogenesis in Capsicum is presented, and the recalcitrancy problems are discussed.