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B. MEENA KUMARI* AND K. GANESAMURTHY
Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641 003.
An experiment was conducted to study the expression of heterosis for ten characters in forty five crosses of sesame developed by crossing five lines with nine testers in Line x Tester mating design. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters studied except for number of secondary branches. Heterosis was worked out over midparent, better parent and standard parents viz., CO 1 and TMV 7. For days to fifty per cent flowering and days to maturity, none of the crosses exhibited significant relative heterosis and heterobeltiosis. The cross TMV 5 × ORM 7 expressed significant and positive heterosis over mid-parent, better parent and two standard parents for single plant yield along with high per se performance. The crosses TMV 5 × ORM 7, TMV 6 × VRI 1 and TMV 3 × CO 1 expressed highly significant standard heterosis for most of the traits studied including single plant yield and hence could be exploited for developing superior hybrids and varieties.
Heterobeltiosis, Relative heterosis, Sesame, Standard heterosis, Yield.