Genetic diversity of Sesame (Sesamum indicum L) using high throughput diversity array technology

Sesame is an important oil crop widely cultivated in Africa and Asia. Characterization of genetic diversity and population structure of sesame genotypes in these continents can be used to designing breeding methods. In the present study, 300 genotypes comprising 209 Ethiopian landraces, and 75 exotic collections from different African and Asia countries, and 16 varieties were used. The panel was genotyped using two high-throughput diversity array technology markers. A total of 6115 silicoDArT and 6474 SNP markers were reported, of which 5065 silicoDArT and 5821 SNP markers were aligned with the reference sesame genome. For further analysis, it was filtered with an allele frequency for each SNP site and left 2997 high-quality SNPs. All genotypes used in this study were descended from eight geographical origins. The average diversity of the panel was 0.14. Considering the genotypes based on their geographical origin, Africa collections (0.21) without Ethiopian collection was more diverse, when further portioned Africa, North Africa (0.23) collection was more diverse than others, but at the continent level, Asia (0.17) was more diverse than Africa (0.14). The genetic distance among the populations was ranged from 0.015 to 0.394. The populations were clustered into four groups. The structure analysis was divided into four hypothetical ancestral populations and 21 genotypes were an admixture. This indicate genotypes from the same origin didn’t classify on the country of origin. The genetic diversity and population structure guide future research work to design association studies and the systematic utilization of genetic resource. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Korean Society of Crop Science (KSCS).