Combining Ability and Heterosis for Yield and Related Traits in Chili (Capsicum annuum L.)

An experiment was conducted to study combining ability and heterosis for yield and related traits in chili during November 2015 to September 2017.

The experimental material consisted of six parents and their fifteen F₁’s developed by half diallel mating design. Analysis of variance for combining ability exhibited significant General and Specific Combining Ability (GCA and SCA) effects for all the characters studied.

The SCA variance was higher than GCA variance for all the traits except ten fresh fruit weight, fruit length and fruit width indicating the predominance of non-additive type of gene action. The parents P₁ and P₆ were identified as the best general combiners and the hybrids P₁×P₆, P₁×P₄ and P₂×P₅ were identified as the best specific combinations for fresh fruit yield per plant and related traits. The hybrids P₁×P₆, P₁×P₄ and P₃×P₆ showed significant average heterosis and heterobeltiosis for fresh fruit yield per plant and its related traits. (H₁/D)^0.5 ratio indicated partial dominance effect of genes for all the traits.

Therefore, it may be possible to take advantages of better heterotic effects to be fixed in the later generations to facilitate further selection and best specific combinations for development of the hybrid variety of chili which can help to increase the total production in Bangladesh.