The work had the aim to evaluating the combining ability among sweet pepper breeding lines, identify superior hybrids for fruit quality, and to infer on the mode of gene action involved in the expression fruit quality. North Carolina-II scheme partial diallel crosses were obtained, to estimate general combining abilities (GCA) of parental lines and specific combining abilities (SCA) of parental combinations. There was evidence for heterosis among experimental hybrids for fruit diameter and insertion depth of the peduncle. Peduncle insertion depth is conditioned, predominantly, by recessive alleles. Experimental hybrids with commercial potential were F1 (L-3436 x L-004), F1 (L-3513 x L-004) and F1 (L-3509 x L-004). Heterosis values relative to the standard cultivar Magali-R-F1 ranged from 1.47% to 30.04% for fruit diameter and 2.57% to 83.71% for insertion depth of the peduncle.
Heterosis; sweet pepper; hybrids; combining abilities; Capsicum annuum
