Breeding potential of multi-parent derived populations in chilli(Capsicum annuum L.)

Selection from multi-parent (MP) derived populations is most likely to fix a greater number of alleles governing complex traits compared to two parents’-derived populations which result in fixation of only two alleles. It is hypothesized that more than two-parents’-derived populations harbour greater variability than those derived from two-parents’. To test this hypothesis, ten multi-parents’ (MP) populations (8 parents) were field evaluated for average fruit length and fruit weight, fruits plant-1 and green fruit yield plant-1. Breeding potential of these ten MP populations was assessed in terms of means, standardized range (SR), phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and frequency of transgressive segregants (TS). The MP populations with greater trait mean, SR, PCV and TS are interpreted as those with high breeding potential (BP). When each statistical criteria considered separately, the results suggested that BP of the MP populations differed. Hence, a rank-sum method, which combines all the statistical criteria into one criterion was used to identify MP populations with high BP. MP populations designated as D5×D2, D4×D2 and D6×D2 with lower rank-sum were considered to possess high BP. These MP populations are suggested for preferential use to isolate new inbred lines to develop new hybrids