Assessment of genetic variability for capsule shattering characters in Indian sesame

Abstract

Thirty five Indian sesame genotypes were evaluated for their genetic diversity for seed yield and yield attributing characters 
as well as capsule shattering characters. The genotypes were classified into eleven clusters, based on Mahalanobis D2 
statistic. Results on inter-cluster distances revealed maximum diversity between genotypes of cluster II and IV. A perusal of 
the results on cluster means revealed high capsule number per plant, seed weight per capsule and potential seed weight for 
cluster IV, the earliest genotype possessing maximum branches per plant and retained seed number for cluster VI, while 
maximum values for plant height, capsule width and thousand seed weight for cluster VIII indicating the desirability of 
genotypes from these clusters for improvement of respective traits. Further, potential seed weight has the highest 
contribution to total divergence followed by capsule split before drying, retained seed weight, unattached seed weight and 
seed weight per capsule indicating their importance in the choice of parents for developing semi shattering genotypes