Cytological studies on four inter varietal crosses of capsicum annuum

Abstract

Cytological studies of microsporocytes in four hybrids and five parents of the varieties of Capsicum annuum were conducted. Variety local blue was taken as the seed parent. The pollen parents Included varieties, Russian, Indian long red, Chinese g-'ant and Oskosh. All the four crosses revealed pronounced heterosis as regards pollea size. Further, all the hybrids manifested the presence of ring quadrivalents, chain quadrivalents, and trivalents while the hybrid local blue x Indian long red contained univalents, pycnotic behaviour, unequal distribution and anaphase bridges. The abnormal meiotic behaviour of microsporocytes had a positive correlation on the pollen sterility and affected the ultimate fruit set.