New pepper plants and fruits with improved nutritional value
AssigneeSyngenta Participations AG
InventorsLaurie Boyden, Kevin Cook, Steven John Czaplewski, Henricus Johannes Van Wijk
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Abstract
The present invention concerns Capsicum annuum plants producing pepper fruits, exhibiting new physicochemical characteristics of the pepper fruit in relation with chlorophyll A & B, lutein as well as violaxanthin. The pepper fruits of the plants according to the present invention also exhibit a characteristic extreme dark green color at immature stage which color is linked to the content in pigment of the said fruit. The present invention also relates to QTL alleles directing the expression of the pigment content of those pepper fruits as well as molecular markers associated with these QTL alleles.
Claims6
A pepper plant, particularly a cultivated pepper plant, more particularly a cultivated blocky fruit type pepper plant, bearing extreme dark green color fruit at immature harvestable stage, said plant comprising two genetic determinants directing or controlling expression of said extreme dark green color in the pepper fruit of the pepper plant wherein said two genetic determinants are represented by two QTL or a functional part thereof capable of directing or controlling expression of said dark green immature fruit color in the pepper fruit of the pepper plant, wherein the extreme “dark green color” is associated with the following physicochemical characteristics of the pepper fruits at immature harvestable stage:
- a content in Chlorophyll B greater than 6, particularly greater than 7, more particularly greater than 8 and even more particularly greater than 9 μg/g of fresh weight,
- a content in Chlorophyll A greater than 20, particularly greater than 25, more particularly greater than 30 μg/g of fresh weight,
- a content in lutein greater than 5, particularly greater than 6, more particularly greater than about 7 μg/g of fresh weight,
- a content in violaxanthin greater than 2, particularly greater than 2.5, more particularly greater than 3, even more particularly greater than 3.5 μg/g of fresh weight,
- wherein the two QTL or a functional part thereof are genetically or physically linked to four marker loci, which co-segregate with the extreme dark green color and are selected in the group comprising:
- SP436, SP626, SP693 and SP694.
A method of identifying a pepper plant bearing extreme dark green pepper fruits comprising:
- a) providing a population segregating for dark green immature fruit color,
- b) screening the segregating population for a member having an extreme dark green pepper fruit trait, wherein said trait can be identified by the presence of the following molecular markers in the genome:
- SP436, SP626, SP693 and SP694
- c) selecting one member of the segregating population, wherein said member is bearing an extreme dark green pepper fruit trait.
A method for providing pepper plant producing pepper fruits exhibiting an increased content of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, lutein and violaxanthin, comprising the steps of:
- a) selecting a plant of the genus Capsicum, which exhibits Extreme dark green color, wherein said trait is associated with two QTL, QTL1 and QTL2, or a functional part thereof capable of directing or controlling expression of said extreme dark green color in the pepper fruit of the pepper plant, wherein said QTL1 or a functional part thereof is genetically linked to marker loci SP436 and SP626 and wherein QTL2 or a functional part thereof is genetically linked to marker loci SP693 and SP694, which co-segregate with the Extreme dark green color and can be identified in a PCR reaction by
- i) forward primer of SEQ ID NO 1 reverse primer of SEQ ID NO 2 and probe of SEQ ID NO 9 for marker locus SP436;
- ii) forward primer of SEQ ID NO 3, reverse primer of SEQ ID NO 4 and probe of SEQ ID NO10, for marker locus SP626;
- iii) forward primer of SEQ ID NO 5, reverse primer of SEQ ID NO 6 and probe of SEQ ID NO 11 for marker locus SP693;
- iv) forward primer of SED ID NO 7, reverse primer of SEQ ID NO 8 and probe of SEQ ID NO 12 for marker locus SP694
- or by any adjacent marker that is statistically correlated and thus co-segregates with the Extreme dark green color.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.