PJB-2021-528
Genetic Diversity Studies in Capsicum Annuum for Yield and Fruit Quality Related Traits
Khurram Ziaf
Abstract
Hot Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is known as one of the main commercial vegetable and spice crop on the globe. Genetic diversity with respect to shape, size, yield, quality and other traits is the pre-requisite for planning breeding program. The present experiment was conducted to study the genetic variability among various pepper genotypes for different growth, yield and fruit quality traits, and to identify the most promising pepper genotype(s) suited for cultivation in low tunnel under the agro-climatic conditions of Faisalabad. Twenty-nine pepper genotypes including seven accessions from National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) gene bank, three selections and fifteen Turkish genotypes were grown in low tunnel with two hybrids and two local genotypes for comparison. Ten genotypes, ‘Kunri’, ‘Revival (Hybrid)’, ‘Bagcl Carliston’, ‘Yalova Yaglik’, ‘P-6 (Hybrid)’, ‘Llica 256’, ‘NARC-20451’, ‘Ege-91’, ‘Ghotki’ and ‘Indian ICS’ were found the most promising. ‘Kunri’ required less days to flowering (70 days), and its fruit had highest TSS (9.9%) and ascorbic acid content (3.6 mg/g). The least number of days from flowering to fruiting (35 days) were required by ‘Revival (Hybrid)’ but was similar to selection Indian ICS and Turkish genotype Bagcl Carliston. Maximum number of fruits per plant (239) were also noticed in ‘Indian ICS’. Leaf area (44.2 cm2) as well as Lightness of fruit (L*=59.2) were highest in ‘Bagcl Carliston’. Maximum fruit weight (21.35 g) and fruit fresh to dry weight ratio (9.6) was observed in ‘Yalova Yaglik’. Maximum fruit length (16.6 cm) and highest fruit yield (1678.9 g) was noticed in ‘P-6 (Hybrid)’ while, minimum fruit pedicel length (1.48 cm) was recorded for ‘Llica 256’. Fruit firmness was highest (8.5 N/mm) in ‘NARC-20451’. ‘Ege-91’ exhibited highest total phenolic content (2.2 mg/g) while, ‘Indian ICS’ had highest total soluble sugars (16.2 mg/g). ‘Ghotki’ showed the largest hue angle (ho=126.9) and chroma value (C*=57.7). Genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and broad-sense heritability values were high for fruit weight (68.83%, 69.12%, 0.99), ascorbic acid content (141.8%, 142%, 0.99), total soluble sugars (68.3%, 68.4%, 0.99), and number of fruits per plant (1821.7%, 1831.2%, 0.99), which indicated easy transfer of these traits to next generations in breeding programs. Moreover, highest yield, fruit length and fruit dry matter contents of genotypes in cluster IV (Yalova yaglik, Chinese-8819) make them more suitable to be included in breeding programs.
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