CORRELATION STUDIES AND PATH COEFFICIENT ANALYSIS IN SESAME (SESAMUM-INDICUM L)

Field investigations were carried out at the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, India during 1989-1990 to study the genotypic character association in sesame. The F4 and F5 generations of TSS6 X TMV3 and TMV3 X TSS6 were raised and eight genotypic characters were recorded: plant height; primary branches; secondary branches; capsule number per plant; seed number per capsule; 1000 seed-weight; oil content and seed yield per plant. Correlation studies showed that the magnitude and direction of correlation between eight pairs of traits varied with generations in both crosses involving two genotypes reciprocally. Single plant yield had a strong significant and positive relationship with capsule number in both generations of the two cross combinations indicating the close link between the two traits. The path coefficient analysis revealed that direct and indirect contributions by different traits primary branches, secondary branches, capsule number per plant, seed number per capsule and 1000-seed weight had to be considered as the most important traits in the determination of seed yield and selection of parents.