Improving Sweet Peppers for Fruit Qualities, Poster Board #434

Genetic diversity in Capsicum species offers great opportunities to breed cultivars improved in levels of  fruit antioxidant compounds, brilliant colors, and flavor with interesting shape and size.  This research, performed in an innovative educational effort by undergraduate students, evaluated the inheritance of fruit shape, fruit size, fruit color, pungency, pericarp thickness,and flavor in several commercial cultivars and their crosses.  In a cross involving two open-pollinated heirloom cultivars Round of Hungary and Bulgarian Carrot, the red mature fruit color and pungency were dominant traits over yellow fruit color and sweet taste, wavy pericarp was recessive over smooth pericarp and pericarp thickness was semi-dominant. Pericarp extracts of Bulgarian carrot had significantly greater antioxidant activity compared to those of Round of Hungary using ferric reducing antioxidant power assay.  However, total amount of extractable carotenoids were significantly greater in mature fruits of Round of Hungary than those of Bulgarian Carrot.  Fruits of F₁ plants for Bulgarian Carrot x Round of Hungary had total carotenoid levels comparable to Round of Hungary.  Immature fruit color of cultivar Islander cultivar purple due to anthocyanin accumulation.  This trait was dominant in crosses with yellow fruited Bulgarian carrot and red-fruited Ladybug.  Inheritance patterns of fruit color, pungency and fruit size confirmed previous genetic studies in peppers.   Further data on carotenoid levels, antioxidant activities and fruit anthocyanin coloration are valuable new information to build cultivars enhanced for high levels of pro-vitamiin A carotenoids, and anthocyanins combined with interesting fruit size and shape.