Genetic diversity analysis in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) germplasm based on morphological and quality traits

To study the genetic divergence in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.), a set of 97 diverse germplasm, collected from different sources was planted at the Project Coordinating Unit (Sesame and Niger) Research Farm, JNKVV, Jabalpur (M.P.) during kharif 2013 in a Randomized Complete Block Design in two replications. With the help of Mahalanobis's D2 statistics, all the genotypes were clustered in 15 groups. Cluster I was the largest among all clusters comprising 48 germplasm, Cluster IV had 22 germplasm and Cluster V had 15 germplasm. Cluster II, Cluster III, Cluster VI, Cluster VII, Cluster VIII, Cluster IX, Cluster X, Cluster XI, Cluster XII, Cluster XIII, Cluster XIV and Cluster XV had single germplasm each. The trait oil content (34.94%) contributed maximum to genetic divergence followed by days to 50% flowering (28.72%) and number of capsules per plant (23.43%) . Moderate to low contribution was exhibited by plant height, 1000 seed weight, number of secondary branches per plant, capsule length, number of primary branches per plant, seed yield per plant and days to maturity. The highest intra cluster distance was recorded in cluster V (77.42) followed by cluster IV (71.05) and cluster I (62.94). The inter cluster distance was highest between the cluster VI and cluster XV (516.18) followed by cluster VIII and cluster XV (410.70), cluster XI and cluster XIV (363.55) suggesting wide diversity. The lowest inter cluster distance was observed between cluster III and cluster VI (41.10). The highest cluster mean values were found in cluster IX for characters plant height (98.17), number of capsules per plant (74.00) and 1000 seed weight (3.97) and lowest for days to 50% flowering (37.50) and days to maturity (100.00). Cluster XV had highest cluster mean value for days to 50% flowering (43.50), days to maturity (107.50), number of primary branches /plant (5.00), number of secondary branches/plant (2.67), seed yield/plant (9.57) and oil content % (51.06). Thus, selection of germplasm from clusters IX and XV i.e. ES 334962 and RJS-Bo would be effective. Crossing between germplasms lying in clusters VI and XV followed by clusters VIII and XV i.e. ES 334962, S-0069 and GRT-83128 may be desirable for getting superior hybrids/recombinants.