ABSTRACT
There are many types of peppers that are being utilized for different purposes with different quality and trait requirements for successful production. Conventional breeding methods and strategies have been used for crop improvement in pepper, including pedigree breeding, single plant selection by the pedigree method, population improvement by recurrent selection , backcrossing , single-seed descent (SSD) and recombinant inbred lines (RIL) produced by SSD. Disease is often the major constraint of pepper production worldwide. Disease resistance, therefore, is one of the foremost objectives in pepper breeding and genetic studies (Paran et al. 2004). Pohronezny (2003) provided overviews of most of the known pepper diseases. Resistance sources in wild species or domesticated peppers have been reported for Tomato mosaic virus (TMV) (Boukema 1980), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) (Pochard 1982; Shifriss and Cohen 1990), Potato virus Y (PVY) (Pochard et al. 1983), Pepper veinal mosaic virus (PVMV) (Hobbs et al. 1998), Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) (Rosello et al. 1996), bacterial spot (Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria) (Hibberd et al. 1983), bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) (Perera et al. 1992), Fusarium wilt (Jones and Black 1992), Anthracnose (Colletotrichum spp.) (Voorrips et al. 2004), Phytophthora root rot/stem rot/foliar blight caused by Phytophthora capsici (Pochard and Daubeze 1982), nematodes, etc.
