(.VARIABILITY AND COMBINING ABILITY IN SESAME (SESAMUM INDICUM L

Abstract

Three experiments were carried out at the Experimental Farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University during the period of 1992- 1994 growing seasons.

A- Genotypes evaluation experiment:

The objective of this trial was to study the variability in some qualitative and quantitative characters of thirty-three sesame genotypes representing three groups, i.e. twenty-six foreign introductions, five local genotypes and two commercial varieties.

The experimental design was the Randomized Complete Blocks

Design (RCBD) with four replications. The genotypes were sown on

2nd and 7th of June in 1992 and 1993 seasons, respectively. The experimental plot unit consisted two rows, 3.5 meters long and 60 em. apart, hills spaced 20 em. apart. After complete emergence, seedlings were thinned to two plants/hill.

Separate as well as combined analysis of variance of data was computed. The phentypic (<fp) and genotypic (<fG) variance, coefficient of variability and covariance were calculated. Moreover, the phenotypic (rp) and genotypic (rg) correlations among different pairs of studied traits were estimated. In addition, path-coefficient analysis was done to analyze interrelated variables influencing seed yield.