ANALYSIS OF MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES OCCURRING IN CHILLI GENOTYPES (Capsicum spp.) UNDER HIGH TEMPERATURE CONDITIONS

Chillies (Capsicum spp.), the second most consumed vegetable around the world, belongs to the Solanaceae family. Chilli crop is negatively affected by high temperature which leads to economic yield losses in fruit production. Thus, the current study was designed with the aim to evaluate the various morpho-physiological and biochemical characters which can be useful for evaluation of heat tolerance potential in chilli genotypes and to assess the genotypes against stress. A pot experiment was conducted in growth chamber of mushroom lab of Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad during 2015. Four chilli genotypes C-37, Uk-101, H-13 and Jawala were chosen to undergo morpho-physiological and biochemical investigations under high temperature (40/32 degrees C day and night temperature). Results regarding growth and physiological attributes were found effective for the assessment of heat tolerant potential in chilli crop. Further, the results also demonstrated significantly different genotypic behavior of chilli genotypes against heat stress. Conclusively, it can be stated that chilli genotype namely C-37 is found most heat tolerant among the studied genotypes and can be used to enhance chilli yield under stressful environmental conditions of elevated temperatures.