Genetic analysis of capsaicin content of red ripe fruits in chilli (Capsicum annuum L.)

The study was undertaken to find out the nature and magnitude of gene effects of capsaicin content of red ripe fruits in chilli. The parents (P₁, P_c), F₁, F₂ and backcross (B₁, B₂) generations of six crosses of PBC 830 (female parent) with S-2530, Punjab Lal, Ludhiana Local Selection (LLS), Ooty Round, Anheim Thick Green (ATG) and Pepsi-7 were studied. In all the crosses, the F₁ means were intermediate between their respective parental means but higher than their corresponding mid-parental means suggesting partial dominance towards the higher parent. Among all kinds of gene effects, additive effects were more than non-additive effects. Highly significant value of dominance [h] and dominance x dominance [l] components with opposite signs revealed duplicate type of epistasis in the crosses PBC 830 x Pb Lai and PBC 830 x Ooty Round. Hence this will reduce the net gain occuring from heterozygosity due to cancellation of dominance and epistatic effects. Such situation is not very conductive for exploitation in the form of F₁ hybrids. Hence, it can be concluded that capsaicin content of red ripe fruits is controlled by both additive and non additive gene effects but additive effects with partial dominance has more influence on the inheritance of this quality characters and selection for improvement should be effective in later generations.