Identification of resistant germplasm in sesame against phyllody disease

Sesame is an ancient oilseed crop. It plays an important role in the oilseed economy of the world. The export of sesame is increasing day to day and having bright future for its export potential. The crop is affected by many pests and diseases. One of the important pests is the leafhopper Orosius albicinctus, which transmits the phyllody diseases associated with phytoplasmas. Phyllody is an important disease of sesame, the affected plants become stunted, and the floral parts being modified into leafy structure which results in non bearing of fruits and seeds causing yield loss up to 33.9%. The investigation was undertaken to screen a large number of germplasms against phyllody disease in sesame. A field experiment was conducted to find out resistant germplasm against phyllody during the “kharif” cropping seasons in 2020 (3,701 accessions), 2021 (1,475 accessions), 2022 (85 accessions) and 2023 (67 accessions). Seeds were sown in augmented plot design with resistance and susceptibility check after every twelfth row The incidence of phyllody was recorded individually by counting the number of infected and healthy plants at random by quadrate selection in each row and the percentage of disease incidence was calculated. Observations on disease incidence, test weight and yield gm/plant were recorded. Among the 5,328 accessions tested only less than 10% of the screened germplasm was found resistant to phyllody disease.