Abstract
Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is an important vegetable crop grown worldwide and propagated commercially by seeds. It is well known that pepper was recalcitrant to tissue culture techniques and several studies have shown that the response was genotype -dependent. In order to improve the regeneration capacity of three Libyan pepper hybrids namely, Ziad×254, Ziad×38 and Nizar×24, a study was conducted to clarify the effects of cytokinin combination; Benzyl adenine (BA) at 4, 5 or 6 mg/L combined with Kinetin (Kin) at 1 mg/L, and type of explants; shoot tips and single nodes (1-1.5 cm long) on in vitro proliferation. Explants were excised from 10 days old in vitro grown seedlings and cultured onto MS medium supplemented with cytokinins. The cultures were incubated at 25 ± 2ºC under continuous 16-h photoperiod (40 µmol m-2 s-1) using cool white fluorescent lamps. Results indicated that BA + Kinetin at 5+1 mg/L led to high number of shoots per explant and higher number of leaves per growing shoot. Shoot tips explants were superior to single nodes based on the studied parameters. A slight difference was observed in shoot proliferation in the three hybrids. Rooting was 100% after 7 days of culture by using IBA at 0.5 mg/L.