Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur-24
Online published on 25 January, 2012.
Six genetic populations viz., P1 P2, F1, F2, B1, and B2 of three crosses involving four diverse inbreds were studied for estimating nature and magnitude of gene effects, heterosis and inbreeding depression, for eight quantitative characters in chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) at U.P. Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Kanpur, during 1972.
The estimates of gene effects showed that all the three types of gene action, i.e. additive, dominance and epistatic, were prevalent for all the characters in all the crosses. Among the epistatic effects, dominance × dominance was more important followed by additive × additive effects. Studies on heterosis and inbreeding depression indicated that dominance was largely responsible for high level of heterotic effects. With this kind of genetic architecture associated with characters studied, it is suggested that heterotic breeding or reciprocal recurrent selection method would be advantageous in utilizing all the three types of gene effects encountered in this population.
