Vol. 11, Issue 3 (2022)

Author(s):
K Srikanth and MK Ghodke

Abstract:
Present study prioritized on assessing genetic divergence in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) against the 65 diverse germplasm, collected from different sources were planted at the Oil Seeds Research Station, Latur Research Farm, VNMKV, Latur (M.S.) during kharif 2016 in a Randomized Complete Block Design in two replications. With the help of Mahalanobis D² statistics, all the genotypes were clustered in 4 groups. Cluster I was the largest among all clusters comprising 60 germplasm, Cluster II comprising of 3 germplasm and Cluster III & IV were being mono-genotypic clusters. The trait 1000-seed weight (g) was contributed maximum (18.51%) towards diversity followed by days to maturity (16.30%), oil content (13.13%), number of seeds per capsule (11.88%), capsule length (11.59%), seed yield per plant (10.05%), number of branches (9.28%) in that order. The highest intra cluster distance was found in cluster II (13.55), followed by cluster I (10.87). The intra-cluster distance values were zero in the clusters, which had one genotype (III, IV) each. The maximum average inter-cluster distance was found between cluster I and IV (24.75). While minimum inter‑cluster distance was observed between clusters I and III (15.88). Among 4 clusters, cluster III (Maduri) and IV (JLT-408) were most divergent to other clusters. Crossing between germplasms lying in clusters III and IV followed by clusters IV and II i.e. JLT-408, Maduri, UKNM-1067, TKG-306 and SWETA may be desirable for getting superior hybrids/recombinants.