Capsicum x chilli crosses: A novel way of exploiting Heterosis in chill Department of Vegetable Science K. R. C. College of Horticulture, Arabhavi 591 310, Karnataka Dr. RAVINDRA MULGE

Chill has unique place in Indian diet as a vegetable and also as Chill has unique place in Indian diet as a vegetable and also as a spice. Commercially it is recognised as a good foreign exchange earner. The crop is grown in an area of about 7.6 Lakh ha. With the production of 12.34 Lakh tones. In India Andhra Pradesh has been the largest chilli growing state with an area of 2.34 Lakh ha. With the production of 7.5 Lakh tones which contribute 61% percent of the total production (Rao,2006). In Karnataka the area under chilli is 0.76 Lakh ha.and production of about 1.31 Lakh tonnes (Anon.,2005). Most of the area is covered under land races and to a certain extent by open-pollinated varieties. Though heterosis for yield and yield attributes have been reported by several workers (Bhagyalakshmi et al., 1991; Shukla et al., 1999; Narasimhaprasad, 1999; Gandhi et al., 2000), it has not been exploited due to expensive F1 seed production systems and non-availability of stable male sterility.

A very few F1 hybrids have been released for cultivation, where A very few F1 hybrids have been released for cultivation, where seeds are either imported or produced indigenously through laborious and costly conventional method of hand emasculation and pollination. Cost of F1 seeds marketed by private seed companies is prohibitive to majority of the chilli growers, who are marginal farmers and cultivating chilli under rain-fed conditions. To economise F1 seed production, the present study vas carried out with a novel approach of using capsicum entries as female parent, where seed number per pollination is high. Locally adopted capsicum varieties with high seed yield and low pungency were used as testers to cross with chilli lines to get F1 hybrids possessing chilli fruits. For identification of good combiners and assessment of magnitude of heterosis for yield and quality characters with capsicum x chilli combinations.

MATERIAL ANID METHODS Three capsicum lines as female parents and nine chilli lines as male parents. Nine lines of chilli, viz., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (LCA 301) and 39 were crossed with each of three testers of capsicum, viz., 9, 10 and 11 to obtain 27 crosses. These 27 F1 hybrids were evaluated along with parents in randomised block design with three replications at spacing of 75 cm x 45 cm apart. Data were recorded on yield and quality parameters were subjected to line x tester analysis. Heterosis was estimated over the better parental values and standard parent values (LCA 301).

number of seeds per fruit (-0.01% to 149.29%), RESULTS: Variance due to genotypes, parents, crosses and line x tester were significant for most of the yield and quality parameters studied. The magnitude of heterosis over the standard parent (LCA 301) was very high in both the direction and especially in desirable direction for fresh weight of red fruits per plant (-25.58% to 188.69%), chlorophyll ‘b’(-63.4 1% to 180.48%), number of seeds per fruit (-0.01% to 149.29%), dry fruit weight per plant (-32.75% to 90.35%), total green fruit yield (-18.37% to 74.48%), average fruit weight (12.60% to 71.58%), fruit diameter (-2.50% to 58.33%), fruit length (-23.89% to 40.62%), and number of fruits per plant (-46,84% to 35.55%).

Medium to low magnitude of standard heterosis Medium to low magnitude of standard heterosis was observed especially in favourable direction for ascorbic acid content (-38.75% to 12.91%), per cent fruit set (-52.38% to 9.52%) and fruit skin thickness (33.33% to 0.00%). Frequency of heterosis over standard parent was very high for all these traits except for per cent fruit set, fruit skin thickness and ascorbic acid content of the fruit.

Table 1: Magnitude of heterosis for yield and quality parameters in capsicum x chill crosses. Sl No. Character Maximum heterosis (%) over Better parent Standard parent 1 Per cent fruit set 207.69 (9 x 3)# * 2 Number of fruits per plant 83.78 (9 x 39) 35.55(10 x 39) 3 Fruit length 18.86 (9 x 1) 40.62 (11 x 1) 4 Fruit diameter 58.33 (10 x 1) 5 Average fruit weight 71.58 (11 x 7) 6 Total green fruit yield per plant 135.88 (9 x 3) 74.48 (11 x 7) 7 Fresh weight of red fruits per plant 159.55 (9 x 3) 188.69 (11 x 2) 8 Dry fruit weight per plant 528.30 (9 x 3) 90.35 (10 x 39) 9 Fruit skin thickness 10 Number of seeds per fruit 149.29 (9 x 7) 11 Ascorbic acid content 92.80 (11 x 3) #: Name of the hybrid is mentioned in parenthesis *: No Heterosis in favourable direction.

Table 2: Frequency of heterosis in desirable direction for yield and quality parameters in capsicum x chill crosses. Sl No. Character No of hybrids exhibiting significant heterosis in desirable direction over Better parent Standard parent 1 Per cent fruit set 21 2 Number of fruits per plant 19 10 3 Fruit length 9 14 4 Fruit diameter 26 5 Average fruit weight 27 6 Total green fruit yield per plant 7 Fresh weight of red fruits per plant 17 24 8 Dry fruit weight per plant 25 22 Number of seeds per fruit Ascorbic acid content 13 11 Fruit skin thickness

For dry fruit weight per plant, maximum heterosis over the standard parent was observed in 10 x 39 (90.35%), followed by 9 x 39 (75.65%), 9 x 3 (73.40%), 11 x 2 (64.89%), 10 x 7 (62.78%) and 11 x 8 (57.67%). The standard parent (entry 8: LCA 301) was the best parent among chilli lines for total estimated green fruit yield (11.06 t/ha). It has produced 1.50 tonnes per hectare of estimated early green fruit yield and 1.14 tonnes per hectare of estimated total dry chilli yield. Small fruit being dominant (Khambanonda, 1950) heterosis over mid parents and better parents was negative. The magnitude of heterosis for dry fruit weight per plant was very high and it is attributed to use of diverse parents (capsicum x chilli). The hybrid 10 x 39 was the highest dry chilli yielder and is suited for both green and red chilli purpose and it was the second highest yielder for total green chilli yield per plant. The hybrid 9 x 39 was second highest dry chilli yielder and exhibited significant heterosis over the standard parent in the desirable direction for number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight and fresh weight of red fruits per plant. This hybrid was also identified as good specific combiner for fresh weight of red fruits per plant, dry fruit weight per plant, ascorbic acid content. This cross (9 x 39) is suited for dry chilli purpose as it has less skin thickness (0.12 cm).

The third highest dry chilli yielding hybrid was 9 x 3 and it has The third highest dry chilli yielding hybrid was 9 x 3 and it has also exhibited significant heterosis in desirable direction for fruit diameter, fruit skin thickness, average fruit weight, fresh weight of red fruits per plant and number of seeds per fruit. This hybrid was also identified as good specific combiner for total green fruit yield per plant, fresh weight of red fruits per plant, dry fruit weight per plant, number of fruits per plant and per cent fruit set. As this (9 x 3) hybrid has thick fruit skin (0.14 cm), drying of ripe fruits may become a cumbersome process. High magnitude of heterosis for dry fruit yield per plant is attributed to better growth and yield parameters observed in hybrids as it is evident from correlation studies, where dry fruit yield per plant was significantly associated with fresh weight of red fruits per plant (rp=0.823), fruit diameter (rp=0.780), number of fruits per plant (rp=O.775), per cent fruit set (rp=0.724). Number of seeds per fruit in all the three testers (capsicum entries), viz., 9 (184.0), 10 (188.7) and 11 (191.0) was high and hence it is feasible to exploit heterosis for chilli yield by using these lines as female parents.

1st Parents and respective hybrids

Parents and respective hybrids

3rd Parents and respective hybrids 2nd

Parents and respective hybrids

Non-additive gene action was predominant for majority Non-additive gene action was predominant for majority of the characters, viz., stem girth, specific leaf weight, fresh weight of red fruits per plant, dry fruit weight per plant (Jagadeesh, 1995; Lohithaswa, 1997), fruit diameter (Krishnamurthy and Deshpande, 1997), per cent fruit set and number of seeds per fruit as these characters exhibited high GCA: SCA ratio. Hence, these characters can be improved through recurrent selection schemes and improvement of these characters can greatly contribute for yield improvement as these characters had significant association with yield. There is large scope for heterosis breeding to harness the non-additive genetic variance observed for yield and yield parameters.

Number of fruits per plant 202.55 51.46 1: 0.2540 3 Fruit length 0.78 Table 3: Variance due to general combing ability and specific combining ability for yield and quality parameters. Sl No. Character GCA SCA GCA:SCA ratio 1 Per cent fruit set 6.59 113.68 1 : 17.250 2 Number of fruits per plant 202.55 51.46 1: 0.2540 3 Fruit length 0.78 0.34 1: 0.4358 4 Fruit diameter 0.0017 0.03 1: 17.647 5 Average fruit weight 0.028 0. 190 1: 6.7857 6 Total green fruit yield per plant 1771.76 6019.18 1:3.3972 7 Fresh weight of red fruits per plant 24.58 1697.07 1: 69.042 8 Dry fruit weight per plant 3.35 149.99 1: 44.773 9 Fruit skin thickness o.oo1 0.00004 1: 4.100 10 Number of seeds per fruit 39.5 640.57 1: 16.216 11 Ascorbic acid content -54.95 495.06 1: 9.0092

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