OPTIMAL CONDITIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMBRYOS, PREPARATION AND SEEDING OF EXPLANTS AND FORMATION OF EMBRYOGENIC CALLUS OF PEPPER (PIMENTA DIOICA L.).
The present invention refers to the propagation of pepper (Pimenta dioica L.) by the somatic embryogenesis technique, pepper being also known as allspice due to its flavor similar to cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, pertaining to the Myrtaceae family and being a spice of great importance at a worldwide level, since it has a wide variety of uses in the pharmaceutical and aromatic industry. There is a great interest in increasing plantations of pepper in the region due to the increased demand, but there is no propagation method for accelerating its production and ensuring the continuity of the best genetic characteristics of the spice. Likewise, there is no study regarding the aromatic characteristics of pepper and its profile of essential oil highly demanded due to its applications in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. The development of an efficient methodology for obtaining plants of Pimenta dioica on a large scale, which would maintain characteristics of high productivity, low si ze and a high amount of essential oils of a high quality, will enable to reduce the problem of the vegetative seed supply for the establishment and renewal of plantations with high quality materials. Nowadays, a high-potential alternative for the vegetative propagation is the somatic embryogenesis, a method able to perform an in vitro propagation of plants under aseptic conditions, also maintaining the characteristics of the mother plant, under controlled conditions (light intensity, photoperiod, composition of the culture media, growth regulator levels, temperature, etc.), which reproduces high propagation rates of plants of agricultural interest, thus generating a warrantee of quality and homogeneous productivity in a continuous form for the market. The somatic embryogenesis is highly considered as the best way of regeneration, which uses the techniques of plant tissue culture in forest biotechnology. The current advances in genomic-biotechnology are having a great impact in the us e
