Effect of explants, hormonal combination and genotype on micropropagation of pepper

Pepper (Capsicum annuum) is generally propagated from seeds. In Iran، imported hybrid seeds are used for this purpose. Germination of the greenhouse pepper seeds and stabilization of their seedlings takes a long time. But، tissue culture technique could rapidly propagate this plant with a homogeneous genetic structure in a large scale. An attempt was made in this study to evaluate the effects of different genotypes، explants and growth regulators on callus production and regeneration and introduce the appropriate protocol for micropropagation of commercial varieties of pepper in Iran. Analysis of variance indicated that effect of different genotypes، interaction of various explants and combination of hormones and interaction between genotypes، explants and hormones were significant on the evaluated traits at 1% level. Based on the results، for micropropagation of pepper with leaves and cotyledons، combination of 1 mg/l IAA and 5 mg/l BAP was selected. It seems that using leaf explants for micropropagation of pepper in large scale in greenhouses would be suitable.