Creation of Chlorophyll-Deficient Pepper Forms with Multicolored Flowers

Multifarious forms in respect with plant, flower and fruit characteristics were created using initial hybridization between anthocyanin Capsicum annuum mutant 'Zulu' and C. frutescens accession (No. 23), followed by a reverse cross with anthocyaninless C. annuum 'Albena'. Small, hot, incomplete anthocyanin plants were obtained within later segregating progenies with variation of purple coloration on stem, leaf and fruit. Diverse flowers were also observed with fully violet petals, or purple with white bottom, cream with purple margin, apex and central nerve, or completely white ones. Several plants were found in this population, each with multicolored flowers varying from purple, motley to nearly white during the blossom. They had small upright conical purple fruits, some of them with sulphur ring round the calyx, becoming red at maturity. Spontaneous chlorophyll-deficient mutation was found and stabilized. It consists of short plants with bright yellowish stem and foliage and large, kapiya-type, red fruits. A cross between the described new forms was realized. Inheritance of the two features, chlorophyll deficiency and variegated flowers was investigated. Hybrid progenies showed partial resistance to four fungal pathogens - Botrytis cinerea, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Verticillium dahliae and Colletotrichum spp. under natural infection background. Stabilization of forms, combining both characters is in progress in order to create marker lines, which could be used as initial material for further genetic investigations and for breeding programs.