Heterosis studies in sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) through line x tester analysis

Introduction

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.), a diploid species with 2n = 26 chromosomes, is a significant oilseed crop in India. Classified under the Pedaliaceae family, it is often referred to as the 'Queen of Oilseeds' owing to its high oil content and distinctive nutty aroma and flavour. Sesame originated in Africa and subsequently spread to West Asia, India, China, and Japan, which became secondary centres of diversity (Weiss, 1983). Sesame is cultivated on 12.97 million hectares of land worldwide (FAOSTAT, 2024). Sesame is cultivated in eight Indian states: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Orissa. In India, sesame is cultivated over an area of 15.23 lakh hectares with a productivity of 527 kg/ha and production of 8.02 lakh tonnes (Indiastat, 2023). India holds a prominent position in the global oilseed scenario, accounting for 29% of the total area and 26% of production. In Maharashtra, for Kharif season the area under sesame crop is 3.85 thousand ha, production is 1.15 thousand tonnes and productivity is 227 kg/ha and for Rabi season area 1.32 thousand ha, production 0.92 thousand tonnes (Final advance estimates, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, GoM 2023-24) [29,6,9] . The utilization of hybrid vigour in sesame is contingent upon the degree of heterosis and the economic feasibility of large-scale hybrid seed production. Despite sesame being predominantly self-pollinating, notable cross pollination occurs (Mohammed et al., 1965). Sesame shows high heterosis for yield traits, as reported by several studies. Sesame is particularly well-suited for commercial exploitation of heterosis due to several reasons like low seed rate, high seed multiplication ratio (1:150) and the epipetalous floral structure of sesame facilitate easy emasculation. In self-pollinated crops like sesame, exploiting heterosis holds significant potential. Out crossing diverse parents can break yield barriers, facilitating the development of new cultivars. Heterosis breeding become a significant tool for achieving higher yield and improved quality in sesame. In sesame the cost of hybrid seed production is low as compare to other oilseed crops hence exploiting hybrid vigour has become an effective method for sesame development.

Materials and Methods

The present investigation was carried out at Education and Research Farm, College of Agriculture, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli (MH.) during Rabi 2024-25. The experimental materials comprised of ten parents out of which RMT 175, KMS 391, GT 10, JLS 710, AVTS-22-12, JLS 706 and JLT 408-2 were used as lines whereas, PT 1, SHEKAR and JLS 907 were used as testers. JLT 408 was used as standard check and 21 F1's were made by using LxT mating design. All the ten parents, standard check along with 21 F1's were raised in a Randomized Block Design with three replications. All the recommended package of practices was adopted for raising a healthy crop. Five randomly selected plants, from each plot of all the three replications were tagged and used for recording the observations on 13 traits viz., Days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height (cm), number of branches per plant, number of capsules per plant, number of seeds per capsule, length of capsule (cm), width of capsule (cm), 1000 seed weight (g), seed yield per plant (g), oil content (%), protein content (%) and carbohydrate content (%) and average values were computed across replications. The magnitude of heterosis was estimated in relation to mid parent, better parent and standard check values. They were thus, calculated as percentage increase or decrease of F1s over the Mid-parent (MP), Better parent (BP) and Standard check (SC).

Results and Discussion

Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

The analysis of variance for various characters has been represented in Table 1. It showed that highly significant genotypic mean squares for all studied traits, indicating considerable genetic diversity among genotypes. Further, partitioning of genotypic variance into its components viz., parents, crosses and parents vs. crosses revealed highly significant differences for all the traits. This suggested that there were significant variations between the parents and crosses.

Heterosis

Days to 50% flowering

The negative and significant heterosis was desirable for the character days to 50% flowering. The average heterosis ranged from 6. 25 [25,19,26,16] .

Number of branches per plant

The number of branches is a key trait that substantially influences seed yield. Positively significant heterosis was desirable for this trait. Maximum and significant positive heterosis (100%) over mid parent and (90%) over better parent was found in cross JLS 706 x PT 1, whereas cross AVTS-22-12 x JLS 907 shown maximum significant positive heterosis (133.33%) over standard check JLT 408. Fourteen, seven and seventeen crosses showed significantly positive heterosis over mid parent, over better parent and over standard check JLT 408, respectively. Similar findings were reported by Parameshwarappa et [16,20,22] .

Number of capsules per plant

Positively significant heterosis was desirable for this trait. Maximum and significant positive heterosis (62.82%) over mid parent was found in cross KMS 391 x PT 1, (50.62%) over better parent was found in cross JLS 706 x JLS 907 and (74.90%) over standard check JLT 408 was found in cross AVTS 22-12 x SHEKAR. Out of 21 crosses seventeen crosses displayed significantly positive heterosis over mid parent, sixteen crosses showed positive and significant heterosis over better parent and eighteen crosses recorded significantly positive heterosis over standard check JLT 408. Similar results were obtained by Kumar et 2025). [13,16,20,14,11] [27, 4, 20,1 2] .

For this character out of 21 crosses five crosses were exhibited positive and significant heterosis over mid parent. [8,25,28,19,27,4,25] .

Maximum and significantly positive heterosis (15.12%) over mid parent, (14.81%) over better parent and (13.02%) over standard check JLT 408 was found in cross JLS 706 x JLS 907. Out of twenty one crosses eight crosses showed significantly positive heterosis over mid parent. Three crosses exhibited significantly positive heterosis over better parent. Four crosses recorded significantly positive heterosis over standard check JLT 408. Similar findings were reported by Vavdiya et al. ( 2013) [25] .

Thousand seed weight is one of the important traits to have direct positive association with seed yield (Shekhara and Reddy, 1993). Maximum and significantly positive heterosis (18.59%) over mid parent, (14.66%) over better parent and (15.82%) over standard check JLT 408 was found in cross JLT 408-2 x SHEKAR. Out of 21 crosses, significant positive mid-parent heterosis was recorded in six crosses. Significant positive heterosis over the better parent and standard check JLT 408 was observed in four and six crosses, respectively. Similar findings were supported by Vekariya and Dhaduk (2018), Kumar et al. (2021) and Meena Kumari (2023) [26,13,12] .

For the character seed yield per plant positive and significant heterosis was desirable. [13,18,22,14] .

Maximum and significantly positive heterosis over mid parent (18.56%) was found in cross JLT 408-2 x PT1, over better parent (9.63%) was found in cross AVTS- [7,24] . In present investigation the cross combinations JLT 408-2 x SHEKAR, AVTS-22-12 x JLS 907, AVTS-22-12 x SHEKAR, RMT 175 x SHEKAR and GT 10 x JLS 907 were found promising for seed yield per plant with heterosis and component showing significant desired heterosis. The crosses JLT 408-2 x SHEKAR, AVTS-22-12 x JLS 907 and GT 10 x JLS 907 recorded maximum significant and positive heterosis for the character oil content. Hybrid development in sesame not only enhances seed yield and oil content, but also improves seed quality, thereby boosting the productivity and profitability of the crop.

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