Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran

Annually, over 120 million dollars of vegetable seeds are officially imported into the country, and 98% of the consumed vegetable seeds are imported. On the other hand, the annual production of 3.5 million tons of vegetable crops in more than 18 thousand hectares of greenhouses with a foreign exchange value of 255 million dollars depends on the provision of this seed input. For hybrid seed production, the most critical issue is having the technology to produce inbred lines. By using the haploid system and reverse breeding, it is possible to access the parental inbred lines. In peppers, the microspore culture method (androgenesis) is the most effective method for creating haploid plants. In this way, the microspores in an in vitro medium are changed towards embryogenesis and the formation of haploid and then double haploid plantlets through induced stress. But In cucumbers, the pollen grains are sterilized by exposure to gamma rays and then used to pollinate target plants, the result of this process is a haploid embryo. So far, two new F1 hybrid varieties of colored peppers, "Jovin 1" and "Jovin 2," have been registered and commercialized for the first time in the country in collaboration with the Jovin Cultivation and Industrial Company, and new hybrids of other products to be introduced next year.