Genetic Diversity Assessment of Moroccan Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) Populations Using Agro-morphological Traits

Genetic diversity of Moroccan sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) was analyzed for the first time using agro-morphological traits. Thirty-three sesame populations collected from Tadla region in Morocco were evaluated for 13 parameters in three contrasted environments, Afr-13, Afr-14 and Atj-14. Broad and significant variation among populations was observed only for three agro-morphologic traits, namely first capsule height (FCH), number of seeds per capsule (NSC) and thousand seeds weight (TSW). The respective overall averages were 71.82 cm (ranging from 65 cm to 77 cm), 61.39 (varying from 57 to 65) and 3.20 g (ranging from 3.0 g to 3.4 g). Environment had a highly significant effect on all studied parameters, except capsule size and oil content. The obtained mean values of parameters studied showed that environment Afr-14 was the most favorable for most of them, particularly seed yield (1.32 t/ha) and TSW (3.57 g). Significant and interesting correlations were observed between seed yield per plant (SYP) and other parameters. As relevant implication of this finding, number of capsules per plant (NCP) and NSC could be used as valuable selection criteria in sesame breeding program. However, limited and non-significant variation among sesame populations for most of parameters studied suggests that they are genetically very close and may be derived from a single cultivar or germplasm. Molecular characterization is needed to confirm or refute this hypothesis. Besides, when compared with sesame grown throughout the world, Moroccan sesame was found to be very promising, which open up the possibility to develop this crop in this country.