Comparison of the fertility levels of the closed capsule sesame mutants

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L), is a functional cultivated crop which has an extended usage to industrial, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical areas, recently. But, there are problems in its cultivation, specifically in the harvest; therefore it is replaced with the other crop plants that are unchallenging at harvest. As consequence, sesame cultivation is decreased year by year since sesame harvesting could not be mechanized and manual harvest costs high preventing also its extented cultivation. To succeed sustainably the sesame cultivation, seed loss in maturity and harvest has to be reduced by devoloping close capsule mutants which could make the mechanized harvesting possible. In this research, 9 closed capsule induced mutants of sesame (cc?s), obtained for the first time through induced mutagenesis for the first, one id improved line developed from the natural id/id mutant and two shattering open capsule standart varieties (Muganlı-57 and Birkan) were used. The fertility levels, the fertility related traits, morpho-physiological traits, yield and yield components of the genotypes were investigated comparatively. The data obtained subjected to analysis of variance the genotypes were compared by the orthogonal contrasts described previously i.e. ?the close capsule group versus open group? and ?the cc group versus the id genotype?. As a result of the assessments, the open group?s fertility and yield levels were found higher than the closed group. It was concluded that this inforiority of the closed capsule mutants resulted from the negative pleiotropic effects that have a special impact to fertility causing yield reduction. As a results of these negative side effects of the mutation, the close group?s capsules could not grow bigger and most of the seeds could not developed properly. In spite of the availability of the cc mutants showing similarities in terms of the total number of the capsules with the open capsule standart varieties, the close capsule group had low shares of large capsules in the total capsules. Furthermore, it was found that close capsule group?s capsules had low number of the seeds and it is hardly reachable to the open group in the terms of the fertile seed percentage. However, the presence of the cc mutants (cc-3?-qu ve cc-6) showing better performances than the id genotype, which has been developed by the intensive efforts to date from its discovery in 1943, indicates more adventages over the id for modificaton and thus using them in mechanized harvest if the fertility problems of the induced cc mutants could be solved.