Genetic control of leaf curl virus disease, horticultural and biochemical traits in chilli (Capsicum annuum L.)

Abstract

Two genotypes MS-341 (susceptible) and S-343 (resistant) were used to develop six generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1P1 and BC1P2). These were screened for leaf curl virus disease (LCVD) and phenotype at fruiting stage. The data was recorded for percent disease index (PDI) of LCVD, horticultural and biochemical traits of chilli. The genetic analysis revealed that most of the studied traits revealed higher magnitude of dominance effects which were also confirmed by the average degree of dominance which was more than unity. The traits like PDI, plant height, plant spread, yield per plant, fruit number, fruit length, fruit diameter, coloring matter in powder and oleoresin content showed duplicate type of epistasis. There was a preponderance of dominance × dominance (l) interactions for most of the traits. Therefore, an importance of both additive and non-additive gene effects was realized with the preponderance of non-additive gene effects, hence population improvement approaches such as recurrent selection and bi-parental mating would be suggested.