COMBINING ABILITY AND HETEROSIS OF CHILLI (Capsicum annuum) RESISTANCE TO ANTHRACNOSE

Abstract

Anthracnose (Colletotrichum acutatum) is considered as the major disease in chilli. Resistant variety is
important for controlling infection of disease, since fungicide application and other cultural controlled methods
were not effective. The aim of this research was to estimate combining ability and heterosis of chilli resistance
to anthracnose. Set population of half diallel crosses which involved 6 parents and 15 crosses with C. acutatum
isolate BKT 04 were used in this experiment. Mature green fruit were inoculated using a microinjection method.
Disease resistant percentage and lesion diameter were used for estimating of combining ability. Disease incidence
and lesion diameter were used for estimating heterosis. General combining ability of IPB C15 was high for disease
resistance percentage and lesion diameter. Specific combining ability of IPB C15 x IPB C9 was high for disease
resistance percentage and specific combining ability of IPB C15 x IPB C10 and IPB C4 x IPB C2 were high for
lesion diameter. Negative heterosis was expected in disease resistance traits; IPB C15 x IPB C9 had negative
heterosis for disease incidence and IPB C10 x IPB C9 had negative heterosis for lesion diameter.