LAUSR

Abstract Chilli pepper or hot pepper is an important spice and vegetable crop of family Solanaceae. It is susceptible to a number of viral diseases. So far 65 viruses have been reported including begomoviruses causing chilli leaf curl virus disease (ChiLCVD) in chilli growing areas throughout the world. This disease is very severe and even up to 100 per cent loss of marketable yield has been reported. Development of resistant varieties is effective, economical, ecologically safe and durable approach for management of virus diseases in agricultural crops. So, with this objective, a source of resistance i.e. S-343 was identified using natural and artificial screening against ChiLCVD. The virus species associated with this study was identified by sequencing, which showed the presence of Tomato leaf curl Joydebpur virus (ToLCJoV) in the inoculated plants. To study the genetics of resistance, MS 341 (a male sterile susceptible parent) was crossed with S-343 (resistance donor). After the artificial screening, the F1 plants were found resistant even after 90 days of transplantation. In the F2 generation, 204 plants segregate into 160 resistant and 44 susceptible plants. The results of Chi-square analysis indicated a good fit of this ratio in the hypothesis. Backcross to the susceptible parent segregated into 18 resistant and 12 susceptible plants, which also fit in the test cross ratio of 1:1. This suggested that the resistance carried by S-343 is controlled by a single dominant gene. This resistant source can further be used for transfer of the gene into other higher yielding genotypes and may also be used for mapping the gene conferring resistance against ChilCVD.