Abstract
In the present study, three wild species of sesame, Sesamum alatum, Sesamum malabaricum and Sesamum radiatum and one wild variety of Sesamum indicum, that is, S. indicum var. yanamalaiensis were crossed with eight cultivated varieties of S. indicum L. in both direct and reciprocal forms. All the wild species exhibited different degrees of cross compatibility with cultivated S. indicum. There was no crossed seed set in the direct and reciprocal crosses involving cultivars of S. indicum (2n = 26) with S. radiatum (2n = 64) and with S. alatum (2n = 26). The crosses involving S. malabaricum and S. indicum var. yanamalaiensis having the same chromosome number (2n = 26) as in the cultivated sesame genotypes were fairly successful in producing high percentage of crossed capsules with well filled seeds. The morphology of four wild species along with the cultivated species of sesame and the interspecific hybrids derived were compared. The wild species utilized in the present study differed significantly from the cultivated in branching pattern, leaf pubescence, flower size, color of corolla and anther, size, shape and color of extra floral nectary, capsule size, and shape, texture and size of the seed. All the successful interspecific hybrids showed predominance of wild characters than cultivated S. indicum. Key words: Sesame, wild species, cross compatibility, morphological characterization.
Highlights
Sesame is known to be the most ancient oilseed crop dating back to 3050-3500 B.C. (Bedigian and Harlan, 1986) because of its ease of extraction, great stability, and drought resistance
The experimental materials comprised of three wild species of sesame, Sesamum radiatum (2n = 64), Sesamum alatum (2n = 26), Sesamum malabaricum (2n = 26) and one wild form of Sesamum indicum, that is, S. indicum var. yanamalaiensis (2n = 26) as reported by Devarathinam and Sundaresan (1990) with eight cultivated varieties of S. indicum (Figure 1)
Based on the crossing data, it was evident that all the wild species exhibited different degrees of cross compatibility with cultivated S. indicum
Summary
Sesame is known to be the most ancient oilseed crop dating back to 3050-3500 B.C. (Bedigian and Harlan, 1986) because of its ease of extraction, great stability, and drought resistance. Though S. indicum and S. alatum are having the same chromosome number, capsule and seed setting was not observed in both direct and reciprocal crosses of S. From the data on number of flowers pollinated, number of capsules set and number of hybrid seeds obtained, the crossability between the wild species and cultivated varieties were brought out. There was no seed set in any of the eight direct crosses between S. radiatum and S. indicum.
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