Study of Genetic Divergence Analysis in Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)

Aim: To determine the extent of genetic divergence (D2 statistics) present in sesame genotypes for different traits.

Study Design: The experiment was conducted in Augmented Block Design (ABD).

Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was laid out in kharif 2020 at BSP (Groundnut) Research Farm, JNKVV, Jabalpur (M.P.).

Methodology: Total 160 sesame genotypes and 5 checks viz., RT346, PBTil2, GT10, TMV-7 and VRI-1 were used for diversity analysis for twelve quantitative traits for selection of diverse parents. The 165 genotypes were grouped into eight clusters based on the Mahalanobis D2 values following Tocher’s methods.

Results: Maximum inter cluster distance (63.235) was exhibited between cluster III and cluster VIII and intra cluster distance (28.509) was in cluster VII. The lowest inter cluster divergence (15.881) was noticed between cluster III and V indicating that the genotypes included in them were closely related. Relative contribution of different characters to total divergence was assessed through comparison of actual D2 values for individual characters over all possible combinations. Cluster III had highest mean value for plant height (126.609), days to flower initiation (34.308), days to 50% flowering (37.462), and oil content (44.715). Cluster VII reported to be days to maturity (91.750), number of primary branches per plant (3.833) and number of secondary branches per plant (2.625) and in cluster V had capsule length (2.651). cluster VI reported for number of capsules per plant (59.484) and seed yield per plant (9.168), number of seeds per capsule (58.533) and thousand seed weight (2.848). It was revealed that number of primary branches per plant (11.32%) followed by oil content (11.06%) and number of capsules per plant (11.05%) contributed maximum to total divergence and minimum contributed by days to flower initiation (3.49%).

Conclusion: So, it is expected that crosses between genotypes of cluster III with genotypes of cluster VIII will give rise to high yielding sergeants as high inter cluster distance and those clusters has recorded good mean values can be preferred in selecting germplasm lines for respective traits