Screening and growth assessment of indigenous and exotic sesame genotypes under osmotic Stress

Drought stress decrease plant growth especially during germination and seedling stages in dry areas. The plants of Sesame are moderately tolerant to drought although it is sensitive at germination and seedling stages. About 102 different sesame genotypes were acquired from the Ayub Agriculture Research Institute Faisalabad Pakistan and Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit (USDA) Griffin Georgia United States. Including two local varieties as check screened against drought tolerant were conducted in central lab of PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan during July 2019 by using 3 levels of osmotic poten-tial (0,-0.18, and -0.36Mpa) created through Polyethylene Glycol (PEG 8000) following the complete ran-domized design and data were collected on growth and early seedling indices of sesame. The Hierarchical Cluster Analysis was performed by using IBM SPSS Statistics 23 software on the basis of drought tolerance index (DTI) and Membership Function Value (MFV). Results showed significant decline by increasing osmotic potential regarding studied traits. Ten (10) drought tolerant sesame genotypes namely PI -153509PI -154304 PI -158053 PI -158059 PI -175907 PI -158902 PI -164142 PI -164317 PI -164763 PI -180340 were selected which exhibited the DTI value (0.451 -0.525) with the mean MFV value ranged from (0.856 -0.913) and 5 genotypes had DTI value ranging from (0.075 -0.150). The genotypes with average DTI >= 0.525 were considered as highly drought tolerant genotypes. Contrary, the genotypes with an average DTI <= 0.225 were considered drought sensitive and 20 genotypes were highly drought sensitive (HDS) with mean MFV value ranged from 0.103 -0.196. Genotypes with drought tolerance characteristics can be used for future breeding programs to develop drought tolerant varieties for increasing growth and yield of sesame in drought prone areas.(c) 2023 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.