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Genetically diverse bell pepper cultivars and their 30 F1 hybrids were developed by means of diallel mating system including reciprocals. Variance analysis illustrated considerable disparity among newly developed bacterial wilt resistant hybrid lines for all the studied traits. General Combining ability (gca) effects were more pronounced than specific combining ability effects (sca). The gca effects were high with parents DPBWRC-6-1, EC-464107, EC-464115 and DPBWRC-39 for fruit yield and yield-enhancing traits. Further, reciprocal effects influenced all parameters except fruit width, TSS and lobes per fruit. Among the additive and non-additive genetic variance, the latter had a more significant influence on the inheritance of all studied characters except for fruit width and pericarp thickness. Based on sca analysis, three cross-combinations viz., DPBWRC-29×EC-464107, DPBWRC-39× DPBWRC-1 and EC-464115 × DPBWRC-29 were found to be good specific combiners for the majority of traits and can further be utilized to isolate superior segregates or released as hybrids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic improvement mainly depends on the extent of genetic variability present in the population. The molecular marker is a useful tool for assessing genetic variations and resolving cultivar identities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic divergence of 40 germplasm lines of ricebean. Forty-four SSR markers were used in the present study, out of which only seven were found to be polymorphic. The dendrogram based on SSR marker analysis grouped the 40 ricebean genotypes into 2 clusters, where cluster I was the largest with 37 genotypes. STRUCTURE analysis for the estimation of population structure divided 40 genotypes into 4 groups in which P1 group consisted of 5 genotypes, P2 with 23 genotypes, P3 with maximum number of 7 genotypes, whereas, P4 consisted of 5 genotypes. The genetic variation revealed by SSR analysis will be used in the future breeding programme of ricebean for the selection of diverse parents for hybridization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]