Genetic Variability and Character Association in Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) Accessions

摘要

This study was conducted to determine the genetic variability and character association in 13 sesame (Sesamum indicum) accessions. The accessions were evaluated in replicated field experiments at the Department of Crop Science Teaching and Research Field, University of Nigeria, Nsukka under two planting seasons. The result showed significant differences among the accessions in most of the traits studied. The genotypic and heritability estimates were high for all the growth and yield attributes, indicating that these traits have high transmitting ability to subsequent generations. The highest genetic and phenotypic variance were observed in number of seeds/plant (5389.3 and 5391.3) in 2009 with number of capsules/plant (223.64 and 226.03) in 2010. However, for genetic and phenotypic coefficients of variation, the highest were observed in seed yield/ha and seed yield/plant (37.80 and 40.01) in 2009 while seed yield/plant (40.54 and 40.56) gave the highest in 2010. Apart from number of days to emergence in 2009 planting season, high heritability values were obtained on all the traits during the two planting seasons indicating that selection for those traits would be very efficient. The correlation matrix showed that seed yield/plant correlated positively and significantly with number of leaves, plant height, number of branches, stem girth, number of flowers/plant, number of capsules/plant, number of seeds/capsules, capsule length, capsule weight/plant, 1000-seed weight and number of seeds/plant. This indicates that increase in these traits will ultimately increase seed yield.