Abstract

                                Sixty seven sesame genotypes were subjected to D² analysis. Observations were recorded for plant height, number of branches/plant, number of capsules/plant, seeds/capsule. 1000-seed weight and seed yield/plant. The genotypes were grouped into 10 clusters. Among the clusters, cluster I had 46 genotypes, cluster III, IV, II and V had 6, 5, 3 and 2 genotypes respectively. The cluster VI, VII, VIII, IX and X were highly divergent from cluster II and cluster I from cluster X. Among characters, plant height followed by number of branches/plant and 1000 seed weight contributed more towards the total divergence. Crosses could be effected between genotypes of the divergent clusters namely B45 (1), Govindapuram local (1), SI 861 (1), Madhavi (II), Chidambaram local (I), SO 317 (II), CO 1 (VII), SO 138 (VIII), SI 11 (IX) and IS 45 (X) to get more heterosis and wide segregants.

Key words : Sesame, Genetic divergence