HETEROSIS AND COMBINING CAPACITY OF SWEET PEPPER LINES (Capsicum anuum L.)

The work was designed to evaluate the combining capacity of sweet pepper breeding lines, to identify superior hybrids for fruit yield and quality, and to infer about the mode of gene action involved in the expression of economically important pepper traits. North Carolina-II scheme partial diallel crosses were obtained, and were used to estimate general combining abilities (GCA) of parental lines and specific combining abilities (SCA) of parental combinations. There was evidence for heterosis among experimental hybrids for total yield and mean fruit mass. Early yield is conditioned, predominantly, by recessive alleles. The experimental hybrids with a promissing commercial potential were F(1) (L-3436 x L-004), F(1) (L-3513 x L-004) and F(1) (L-3509 x L-004). Heterosis values relative to the standard cultivar Magali-R-F(1) ranged from 7,50% to 49,89% for early yield; 0,45% to 28,55% for total yield; and 3,07% to 47,37% for mean fruit mass.