Development of high-yielding lines suitable for machine harvesting in sesame

Harvest-threshing processes are based on manual labor, since sesame, cracks its capsules and sheds its seeds when it reaches harvest maturity. Sesame has a deep rooted history in Anatolia, which tends to shed its seeds by showing wild form characteristics (capsule cracking and non-strong placental bond), has been examined in this study, which will enable it to be successful sesame production. It has been determined how the heritability of shattering is, and with the hybridization studies, on the one hand, qualified sesame lines compatible with the fully mechanized harvest that do not shed seeds have been developed, on the other hand, desirable agronomic traits have been tried to be transferred to the released varieties currently produced by the backcross method. Genetic materials that are shown shatter resistant and suitable for fully mechanized harvesting have been added to the Mediterranean Sesame Collection (ACS) and their agro-morphological characteristics have been determined in 2020 and 2021. As a result of this study, significant differences were observed in grain yield, plant height, number of lateral branches, first capsule height, number of capsules, 1000-seed weight, physiological maturity and flowering days. In addition, oil content and fatty acid ratios of the lines were analyzed. Relationships between yield and yield components were determined by simple correlation analysis. Transgressive opening, inheritance of seed coat color, heterosis and heterobeltiosis rates, as well as inheritance of shatter resistant traits, were also investigated with the hybrid populations created. As a result, desirable traits for suitability for machine harvesting in sesame were transferred to the next generations by hybridization technique and it was determined that these traits were controlled by two recessive characters. Lines that obtained by crossing and backcrossing studies were included in breeding programs and added to the gene pool to be used in the development of new sesame varieties in the near future.