Abstract
The identification of microspores or pollen
grains at particular developmental stages during microsporogenesis
or microgamentogenesis is an important step
for different basic and applied purposes. Among them, the
most relevant example from a biotechnological perspective
is the production of androgenic doubled haploids. For this
and other techniques, precise, fast, easy and reliable criteria
to identify flower buds carrying microspores or pollen at
particular stages are essential. In anthocyanin-producing
pepper types, the particularities of flower development
allow for the identification of several morphological
markers potentially useful as criteria for such an identification.
In this work, our aim was to determine the easiest
and more accurate criterion to correlate visible, measurable
traits of bud and anther development with each of the
individual stages of microsporogenesis and microgametogenesis.
For this, we used three Spanish sweet pepper F1
hybrids (Herminio, Gacela and A¿ guila). We analyzed
and discussed the accuracy and practical usefulness of
using anther length, bud length, anther purple pigmentation
and the ratio between calyx length and bud length (calyx/
bud ratio) as predictors of individual microspore/pollen
developmental stages. According to our results, we propose
a combination of calyx/bud ratio and anther pigmentation
as an easy, fast and accurate criterion potentially applicable
to anthocyanin-producing pepper cultivars to determine
their particular markers.
