GENETIC VARIABILITY STUDIES OF SESAME (Sesamum indicum L.) GENOTYPES

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted forty-three sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) genotypes at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, during the period of March 2022 to August 2022 using Rrandomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications to study the genetic variability and interrelationship for various traits among the genotypes. The results revealed that there was a significant variation among the genotypes for the studied traits. The phenotypic variances were higher than the genotypic variances. High broad base heritability together with high genetic advance in percent of mean was observed for number of secondary branches per plant (90.06%), 1000-seed weight (99.31%) and seed yield per plant (97.89%) while moderate heritability for plant height (59.81%). The significant positive correlation with seed yield per plant was found for plant height (r g = 0.546, r p = 0.246), days to 50% flowering (r g = 0.587, r = 0.448), days to 80% maturity (r g = 0.615, r p = 0.321), number of primary branch (r = 0.344), number of capsules per plant (r g = 0.775, r = 0.275), number of seed per capsule (r g = 0.320, r p = 0.240), height of first capsule (r p g = 0.376, r = 0.254) and 1000-seed weight (r g = 0.377, r p p = 0.373). Path co-efficient analysis revealed that plant height (0.856), days to 80% maturity (0.227), number of primary branches per plant (0.467), number of secondary branches per plant (0.441), capsule length (0.258) and number of seeds per capsule (0.213) had the positive direct effect on yield per plant whereas, internode length (-0.799) followed by and number of capsules per plant (-0.370) and days to 50% flowering (-0.198) had the negative direct effect. Considering mean performance, heritability and correlation analysis, the sesame genotypes G6, G12 and G36 for seed yield per plant, and G26, G27 and G37 for early maturity could selected for further improvement.