| Summary: | The evaluation encompassed 52 sesame germplasms to assess their variability and diversity. Number of primary
branches, number of capsules per plant and single plant yield were the traits having high PCV and GCV along with
high heritability and genetic advance as percent of mean. These findings suggest considerable variation for these traits
among the germplasms and are strongly influenced by genetic factors, making them suitable candidates for effective
selection strategies. The diversity among 52 sesame germplasm accessions were analysed using Mahalanobis D2
analysis andAgglomerative hierarchical clustering. They were grouped in to 11 clusters using Mahalanobis D2
analysis.
Cluster II was the largest, followed by cluster I. Highest intra-cluster distance was observed for cluster VIII, followed
by cluster IV and cluster II. The greatest inter-cluster distance was observed among cluster VI and VII. Agglomerative
hierarchical clustering (AHC) based on Ward’s method was used to group the accessions, into clusters of increasing
dissimilarity. The highest dissimilarity was observed between the genotypes CO1 and VRI-NIC-16381. Based on the
AHC and D2
analyses, genotypes with moderate to highest mean values from distant clusters are recommended as
parental candidates in crop improvement programs to facilitate the creation of superior cross combinations.
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