NEW PEPPER PLANTS PRODUCING FRUITS WITH EXTREME DARK GREEN COLOR

The present invention concerns Capsicum annuum plants producing pepper fruits exhibiting new physicochemical characteristics of the pepper fruit in relation to pigments such as chlorophyll A， chlorophyll B， .alpha.-carotene， .beta.-carotene， lutein and/or violaxanthin. The pepper fruits of the plants according to the present invention also exhibit a characteristic extreme dark green color at immature stage. 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. The invention further provides novel pepper cultivars RPP 25822， RPP 26098， RPP 26105， 16452A， 16452B 16452C and 8728C， and plant parts， seed， and tissue culture therefrom. The invention additionally provides methods for producing a pepper plant by crossing the pepper plants of the invention with themselves or another pepper plant. The invention also provides pepper plants produced from such a crossing as well as plant parts， seed， and tissue culture therefrom.