Epistasis in an Andean x Mesoamerican cross of common bean

The objective of this investigation was to check if epistasis is present in Andean x Mesoamerican beans crosses using triple test cross (TTC) method. The parents of the segregating population were Carioca-MG (Mesoamerican) and BRS Radiante (Andean). In July 2005, F-2 progenies (backcrossed with the parents and F-1 generation) were evaluated at two locations for three characters: number of pods plant(-1), number of grains plant(-1) and grain weight plant(-1). The presence of epistasis was detected for all yield components. In the partitioning of epistasis in additive x additive (i) and dominant x dominant (j) and dominant x additive (l) it was observed that, for the traits number of pods/plant and number of grains/plant, only epistasis of the type (j) + (l) were significant. For the trait grain mass/plant, all types of epistasis were significant.