Association Of Heterosis With Combining Ability And Genetic Divergence In Sesame (Sesamum Indicum L.)

Parental diversity is considered desirable to exploit heterosis in any breeding program. The present investigation was undertaken to search out whether any relationship existed between heterosis of cross combinations with phenetic divergence, combining ability and genetic divergence of parents in sesame. Seven sesame genotypes and their 21 cross combinations developed through half diallel mating were assessed for morphological markers, microsatellite markers and seed storage protein polymorphism to estimate different parameters. The clustering patterns of parents differed for morphological, protein and simple sequence repeats (SSRs), though some concordance was observed between phenetic and genetic divergence of parents. Heterosis, both mid-parent heterosis% (MPH%) and better parent heterosis% (BPH%), was positively and significantly correlated with specific combining ability and hybrids per se, but no specific trend transpired between morphological, protein and SSR marker data. However, SSR based genetic diversity (GD) value of above 0.5 between parents, predicted heterotic crosses more reliably.