Generation Mean Analysis in Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.)

To study the nature and magnitude of gene effects for yield and its components in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) we carried out generation mean analysis using the following six crosses of different sesame cultivars: G Til-1, G Til-2, G Til-3, G Til-10, NIC-79/13, PT-1, KMR-39, JLS-9707-2, KMR-49, JLT-26, KMR22, JLS-116. The P₁, P₂, F₁, F₂, BC₁ and BC₂ of these generations were studied for seed yield and its nine quantitative traits. The analysis showed the presence of additive, dominance and epistatic gene interactions. The analysis showed that scales C and D are highly significant for seed yield/plant and all the eight yield components, indicating the predominance of nonallelic interactions or epistasis of Additive x Additive (i) and Dominance x Dominance (l) for almost all the nine characters in most of the crosses. Duplicate-type epistasis played a greater role than complementary epistasis. The study revealed the importance of both additive and non-additive types of gene action for all the traits studied.