Assessment of genetic variability for capsule shattering characters in Indian sesame.

Thirty five Indian sesame genotypes were evaluated for their genetic diversity for seed yield and yield attributing characters as well as capsule shattering characters. The genotypes were classified into eleven clusters, based on Mahalanobis D² statistic. Results on inter-cluster distances revealed maximum diversity between genotypes of cluster II and IV. A perusal of the results on cluster means revealed high capsule number per plant, seed weight per capsule and potential seed weight for cluster IV, the earliest genotype possessing maximum branches per plant and retained seed number for cluster VI, while maximum values for plant height, capsule width and thousand seed weight for cluster VIII indicating the desirability of genotypes from these clusters for improvement of respective traits. Further, potential seed weight has the highest contribution to total divergence followed by capsule split before drying, retained seed weight, unattached seed weight and seed weight per capsule indicating their importance in the choice of parents for developing semi shattering genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]