About the creation of sterile lines of sweet pepper in breeding for heterosis

Relevance. Development of valuable sterile lines of sweet pepper using nuclear-cytoplasmic male sterility is associated with the search for stable sterility maintainers in collection material. Material and methods. The purpose of the research is to optimize the identification of the desired genotypes and accelerate the development of sterile lines using artificial climate chambers. The research material was a sterile line msTol55, which under the conditions of a film greenhouse showed partial fertility at the beginning or at the end of the growing season. The place of cultivation is artificial climate chamber, a film spring greenhouse.50-day-old seedlings were planted in pots on 10.01, the period of growing plants in the chamber - until 20.04, then the adult plants were transplanted into a spring film greenhouse. According to the traditional technology, the cassette seedlings of the same line were planted in the greenhouse on 15.04. The number of tested plants is 16-20 pcs. Growing mode in the chamber: 12 hours were illuminated with DRLV lamps, while the temperature was at the level of 26-28°C, from 20.00 to 8.00 the lamps were not illuminated, the temperature was 14-15°C. The actual sterility / fertility of the flowers was determined by the level of contamination of the fruits at the beginning of their formation. Results. The maintained temperature regime for growing in an artificial climate chamber made it possible to identify sterile (30%) and partially fertile plants (70%) in the first 2 weeks of flowering. When adult plants were transplanted into a spring greenhouse, the number of sterile plants increased to 56%. When growing the line msTol55 in a spring greenhouse using the usual technology, partial setting of seeded and little seeded fruits on 60% of the plants was observed from the third decade of May to the second decade of July, then all plants set only non-seeded fruits. Based on the results obtained, it is advisable to identify the breeding material for the Rf gene in the ACC, since the proposed growing regime serves as a provocative background and allows for more effective control over the manifestation of sterility.