Determination of combining ability and gene effects for yield and yield attributes in Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)

Abstract

To identify combiners and developing cross combinations to exploit heterosis, a set of 10 diverse parental lines were crossed in half-diallel mating design to study the combining ability and gene action for yield and yield attributes. 45 F1’s along with ten parents and one check were evaluated for twelve traits in randomized block design with two replications viz., days to 50 percent flowering, days to maturity, plant height, height to fight capsule, number of branches per plant, number of capsules on main stem, number of capsules per plant, length of capsule, number of seeds per capsule, 1000 seed weight, oil content and seed yield per plant. Analysis of variance and the combining ability showed significant variation among parents, hybrids and parents vs hybrids. Combining ability analysis revealed importance of non-additive genetic variances for the control of all traits. From the evaluation of gca effects in parents, it was observed that DS-5 and RMT-430 is a best general combiner for most of the traits followed by IC 204845. Based on per se performance and sca effects of the hybrid crosses JTS-8 X JLT 408, TKG-22 X RT 368, JTS-8 X MT-10-8-1, RMT-430 X MT-10-8-1 and DS-5 X DSS-9 were identified to be top promising five heterotic hybrids for seed yield. While the hybrids TKG-22 X AKT-101, DS-5 X RT-368, IC-204845 X AKT-101, TKG-22 x RT-368 and DSS 9 x JTS-8 were identified for oil content and these crosses can be best exploited for the improvement of oil content in Sesame.