Genetical studies in chillies

Abstract

An investigation was undertaken to study heterosis, heterobeltiosis, combining ability and gene action of ten important characters in chillies (Capsicum annum) through a 9-parent full diallel analysis. The investigation was carried out at the Division of Vegetable Crops, IIHR, Bangalore. The heterosis percent of F1 hybrids over all the parents was maximum for yield (24.63) followed by the number of secondary branches (24.42) number of primary branches (19.59) days to flower (13.52) and plant height (10.55). For other five parameters, it ranged between four to nine percent only. The maximum heterobeltiosis was expressed in terms of ascorbic acid in cross P7xP9 by 116.04% and minimum of 16. 17% for plant height in cross P7xP6. For yield, it was 61.40% in cross P2xP5. In number of fruits per plant, none of the F1 hybrids exhibited significant heterobeltiosis. There was not even a single heterobeltiotic F1 hybrid for fruit diameter, fruit length, and number of fruits and yield which exceeded the top parent. The present investigation revealed the presence of additive dominant and epistatic gene-action in varying proportions. Single plant selection is suggested for fixing and improving characters like number of fruits, where gene action is mainly additive. For characters like fruit diameter and fruit length having major role of additive gene action and very little of non- additive component, initially single plant selection and later recurrent selection may be followed. Over dominance coupled with epistasis and to some extent additive gene action appeared to influence the number of primary and secondary branches, ascorbic acid and total carotenoids. Reciprocal recurrent selection and heterosis breeding can bring about improvement in those characters.