Abstract: Three strains of sweet pepper, (Capsicum frutescens) “Shuang Feng”, “Zhong Jiao No. 2” and “Zhong Jiao No.3” were screened out of six Chinese cuhivars for their high capacity of regeneration. The normal flowering and fertile regenerated plants have been obtained from cotyledons of seedlings from 10 to 16 days old by a four-step culture procedure; short induction, shoot elongation, rooting of excised shoot and transplanting into soil. MS was the basal medium in all steps, supplemented with different kind and different concentration Of phytohomores. Optimal shoot ioduction medium is MS +4–6mg/LBA+0.5mg/LIAA which gives rise a shoot regeneration frequency of 100%. 35% of the induced shoots elongated on the medium of MS+2mg/L Zeatin or 2mg/L. BA+l–3mg/L GA, and subsequently rooted on MS medium or in addition of 0.1–0.5mg/LNAA. The regenerants were transplanted into soil and developed into normal plants. In the transformation of sweet pepper using the leaf disc method, two kinds of wild type Agrobacterium tumefaciens, C58 and GV3111, have been screened out in regard to their high infection capacity. The transient expression of GUS gene was detected and Kanamycin-resistant shoots from infected cotyledons have been obtained. Further assay and transfering the TMV-resistant and CMV-resistant genes into sweet pepper are in progress.

Key words: Plant regeneration, Gene transformation, Sweet pepper