Stability of Yield and Yield Components of Pepper (Capsicum annuum), and Evaluation of Publicly Available Predictive Meteorological Data in East and Southeast Asia

Abstract

<jats:p>Multilocation trials are important for breeding programs to identify high-yielding, adapted lines for a wide range of environments. In this study, we evaluated yield and yield components (fruit weight, fruit length, and fruit width) as well as days to 50% anthesis and fruit maturity of the 10 chili pepper lines in the International Chili Pepper Nursey 15 (ICPN15) distributed by the World Vegetable Center to interested cooperators worldwide. Performance data of the ICPN15 entries were received from collaborators evaluating the set in seven different environments in five countries (Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam). Significant genotype-by-environment (G × E) interactions were detected for all traits evaluated. Additive main effect and multiplicative interaction analyses indicated high environmental influence on yield, days to 50% anthesis, and maturity, whereas genotype was the greatest contributor to variability in the market-driven yield components of fruit length, width, and weight. Four lines (ICPN15-4, -5, -7, and -10) were identified as highly stable and could serve as sources of yield and yield component stability in either short fruit market segments (ICPN15-4) or long fruit market segments (ICPN15-5, -7, and -10). We attempted to used publicly available weather data to help in explaining the source of the environmental variability; however, differences between analyzed and observed weather were too different to be useful. This is evidence that weather data should be collected at each testing environment in future studies. This study provides a basis for future studies in the stability of important horticultural traits in pepper, and highlights the need for further work in this area.</jats:p>

Yield and Yield Component Performance of Chile Pepper in Myanmar and Vietnam

“…Differing from our previous work (Barchenger et al, 2018), environment played a major role in fruit width and weight in this study. The differences in these two studies could be because different entries were evaluated and only two locations were tested here.…”

“…The need for multilocation testing in chile peppers for selection is critical because strong genotype-byenvironment (G • E) effects have been found for yield and yield components (Barchenger et al, 2018;Cabral et al, 2017;Gurung et al, 2012), as well as other traits such as disease resistance (Barchenger et al, 2019) and secondary metabolites (Gurung et al, 2011).…”

“…Although it would have increased the statistical power to evaluate the same entries across years and locations, we sought to maximize the number of entries evaluated in this study. The chile pepper entries evaluated here were developed in Taiwan and were resistant or tolerant to diseases typically found in tropical Asia in previous field trials (Barchenger et al, 2018…”

“…Productivity of chile peppers is often reduced by both biotic and abiotic stresses, the types of which can vary among regions (Barchenger and Bosland, 2019). Although no cultivar of a given crop is adapted everywhere, cultivars differ in the extent of their adaptations (Barchenger et al, 2018). Plant breeders must examine whether a given cultivar is better adapted to a specific type of environment and whether its performance is stable relative to that of other cultivars.…”

“…Consumer preference of chile peppers is region specific and can vary greatly within a country (Bosland and Votava, 2012). Although studies in this area are limited, it has been observed that regional-specific preferences for chile pepper fruit shape, size, color, and capsaicinoid content, as well as yield, are major driving forces for farmer cultivar selection (Barchenger et al, 2018). Adaptation to warm, humid climates; high yield potential; yield stability; and multiple disease resistance are the key breeding goals in tropical and subtropical Asia (Barchenger et al, 2018).…”