Component Analysis for Yield and Yield Attributing Traits in Sweet Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) Through Diallel Method

An experiment was carried out with ten diverse lines of sweet pepper crossed in diallel fashion to generate forty five crosses to generate information on nature and magnitude of gene effects. The component analysis revealed the preponderance of non-additive gene effects in the inheritance of traits and positive direction of dominance. Average degree of dominance was more than unity in all the traits indicating overdominance. The estimate of Ĥ ₂/4 Ĥ ₁ was less than 0.25 in almost the traits. The value of KD/KR ratio was greater than unity in all the traits except number of locules. The estimates of ĥ ²/Ĥ ₂ were more than 0.50 for days to first flowering, days to first fruit set, days to first fruit maturity, plant spread, pedicel length, number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant and average seed weight per fruit. The heritability (narrow sense) estimates ranged from low to medium values indicating high degree of non-additive gene action. Significant values of t² and significant deviation of regression coefficient from unity depicted the presence of epistasis in days to first flowering, flesh thickness and fruit yield per plant in all the environments and pooled analysis.