Expansion of genetic basis via interspecies crossing of pepper(Capsicum annuum) and determination the inheritance of androgenesis

Broadening genetic base and understanding the heritability of traits of interest are crucial for plant breeding. The objective of the study were to broaden the existing genetic base by crossing between C. annuum (253A and İnan3363) and C. chinense (PI 159236), and to determine the inheritance of response to androgenesis.The study involves evaluation of 54 morphological features The first three eigen values explained 56% total variance in the F2 population derived from 253A x PI 159236 crosswith a mean similarity coefficient ofr=0.99, whereas in the F2 population obtained from İnan3363 x PI 159236 cross, the total variance and the average similarity coefficient were found to be 87% and r=0.89, respectively. In order to determine the heritability of androgenesis, İnan3363 with very high androgenesis response was crossed with PI 159236 with very low androgenesis response. The F2 individuals were phenotyped for androgenesis response to predict the number of genes controlling the trait, broad sense heritability (h2b), narrow sense heritability (h2n), the genetic variance, the additive gene variance, the dominance gene variance and the environmental variance where they were calculated as 2.46, 0.97, 0.20, 113.83, 23.92, 89.91 and 3.59, respectively. Additive and dominant gene effects were recorded as 21% and 79%. In the second population derived from crossing 253A with very high androgenesis response, and PI 159236 with very low androgenesis response, the number of genes controlling the trait, broad sense heritability (h2b), narrow sense heritability (h2n), the genetic variance, the additive gene variance, the dominance gene variance and the environmental variance were calculated as 1.96, 0.96, 0.65, 91.83, 62.71, 29.12, 3.49, respectively. Additive and dominant gene effects were determined as 68% and 32%. Elucidating the inheritance of androgenesis is expected to pave the way for tagging the gene(s) in pepper genome. The new genotypes derived from interspesific crosses may enhance heterosis, hence, they may be good parental candidate for new pepper hybrids with enhanced yield. Keywords: Pepper, interspecies crossing, genetic base, androgenesis, inheritance