ABSTRACT Sesame ( Sesamum indicum L.) is an ancient oilseed crop of family Pedaliaceae, known for its quality oil, supplemented with dietary advantages due to the presence of bioactive compounds like sesamin and sesamolin. Phyllody and dry root rot (DRR) are the two major biotic stress factors that cause significant yield reduction and economic loss in sesame. The causal organism for DRR in sesame is Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid., though a recent report also identifies Alternaria alternata as a causal organism. Breeding for DRR tolerant sesame cultivars requires identification of tolerant genotypes and their associated markers for utilisation in marker assisted selection, using sesame germplasm. Here we report the phenotypic validation of sesame germplasm known to contrast for DRR tolerance and identified three accessions, IC500861, IC511141 and EC347078, exhibiting tolerance to DRR. Additionally, the previously reported SSR markers were used to screen the phenotypically contrasting accessions and identified 17 polymorphic SSR markers. Of these SSR markers, one marker (ZMM1307) was found to be associated with DRR tolerance among the studied accessions. These validated accessions are potentially useful and can be explored to broaden the sources of resistance against DRR and in the breeding program for developing sesame cultivars exhibiting DRR tolerance for sustainable yield and productivity.
Khan et al. (Sun,) studied this question.