Bachubhai Arjanbhai Monpara , Shrikant Sanjayrao Khairnar

Agricultural Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University, Amreli 365601 (Gujarat), India.
Author    Correspondence author
Plant Gene and Trait, 2016, Vol. 7, No. 2   doi: 10.5376/pgt.2016.07.0002
Received: 01 Jan., 2016    Accepted: 01 Mar., 2016    Published: 01 Apr., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

 Preferred citation for this article:
Monpara B. A., and Khairnar S. S., 2016, Heritability and expected genetic gain from selection in components of crop duration and seed yield in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.), India, Plant Gene and Trait, 7(2): 1-5 (doi: 10.5376/pgt.2016.07.0002)

The duration of maturity in sesame is dependent on several physiological and phenological variables, which are interrelated and could be manipulated separately in breeding programme. For effective manipulation of these traits, knowledge of genetic architecture is prerequisite. Therefore, seventy diverse sesame genotypes were studied to know the heritability and predicted gain for components of crop duration, correlation among themselves and to identify superior genotypes to be utilized in future breeding programmes. Sizeable variability was revealed among genotypes for studied traits. Genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was high (>20%) for seed yield and capsules per plant with high heritability (>80%) and high genetic advance as pecentage of mean (>20%). Also, reproductive period and seeds per capsule expressed high heritability coupled with high genetic gain and moderate GCV. All these key components seem to be under the control of additive gene action, which is fixable. Large environmental effect for primary branches per plant was detected. Correlation of capsules per plant was significant positive and physiological maturity was significant negative with seed yield per plant, but both were correlated negatively with each other. Besides this, association of reproductive period was significant positive with physiological maturity and significant negative with vegetative duration. Simultaneous selection for capsules per plant and crop maturity duration would serve the purpose of improvement in these traits and yield in sesame. Top yielding isolated lines can be utilized for enhancing yield potential through increasing capsules per plant and earliness.

Reproductive period; Seed yield; Genetic variability; Correlation