Haploid technology - A potential tool for crop improvement in Chilli

Food requirement is increasing constantly thus there is a need for increased agricultural production. Advanced technology is the need for the hour so that there is increased productivity and increased quality of the crop. Our aim for development of new technology is to develop protocols which are more efficient. Biotechnology is a powerful tool in plant breeding, as it reduces breeding time thus helpful in crop improvement. Microspore embryogenesis is an effective method to generate double haploids. An in vitro anther culture method was developed for producing double haploid plants. The present investigation was carried out to study and optimize the effect of culture media and cold pre treatment for androgenic response as it differs for each genotype. After successful production of androgenic plants of chilli pepper the plants were checked for their ploidy levels and haploids were treated with colchicine for doubling the chromosome number. From our work we have developed some double haploid lines which are far superior to the hybrid parent such as high yielding, highly pungent and highly resistant to CMV and LCV.