Genetic Diversity in Some Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) Accessions Detected by Agro-morphological Characters and RAPD Markers*

Abstract

Agro-morphological and Randomly Amplified Polymorphic
DNA (RAPD) markers were used to determine the diversity and
relationships among 25 accessions of sesame from Sudan. Data on 16
agro-morphological characters were collected from a field experiment,
carried out at Shambat for three consecutive seasons (2006-2008) and
subjected to the procedure of cluster analysis. The results showed that
cluster analysis, based on Euclidean distance, of the agro-morphological
characters grouped the 25 sesame accessions into seven clusters.
Application of RAPD markers generated 48 bands with a 97.9%
polymorphism. A dendrogram constructed from the RAPD data classified
the 25 sesame accessions into eight major clusters. It was concluded that
for efficient estimation of genetic diversity and interrelationships among
sesame accessions, information obtained from both agro-morphological
characters and RAPD should be combined.