Abstract
Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.), an important oilseed crop, requires genetic improvement to ensure food security. Exploitation of a small fraction of genetic diversity is a major limiting factor for this crop. ICAR-NBPGR holds a large sesame base collection (6,000 unique accessions), originating from India and other countries. The study aims at the characterization of a sesame germplasm collection and development of working core set representing the variability of entire germplasm collection in the National Genebank. Characterization was carried out in an Augmented Block Design (ABD) under multi-environmental conditions (six locations representing five agro-ecological zones of India) for two consecutive years based on 33 agro-morphological traits, different levels of biotic stress (phyllody, dry root rot), abiotic stress (water logging, drought), and seed quality parameters (oil, protein, lignan, fatty acids). For core set preparation, the coincidence rate (CR%) for range and the variable rate (VR%) for coefficient of variation were maximum. Levene’s test and Newman-Keuls tests were performed to compare the entire and core collection. Diversity between the two (entire and core collection) was compared using Shannon–Weaver diversity index. We developed a sesame core set of 773 accessions, which consists of 12.88% of the entire collection. Developed core set exhibited a Coincidence rate (CR)% of 99.8% and a variable rate (VR%) of CV 103.59%. A multipurpose core set of sesame germplasm was assembled to benefit the plant breeding community (for trait introgression), farmers, and researchers to develop climate-resilient sesame cultivars.
Data availability
The data is submitted to IBDC (Indian Biological Data Centre) under project ID PPJ_100097. The corresponding author can be requested for the data.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Director, NBPGR, New Delhi, India, for providing laboratory facilities to conduct the research
Funding
This work was supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India under Grant BT/Ag/Network/Sesame/2019–20 to RY.
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Contributions
R.Y.: conceptualization, writing, review, editing, project administration. H.V.: Writing original draft, Data analysis. S.S.: Data analysis. A.M.: Sesame study under field conditions. P.R.: review and editing. A.K.: reviewing. S.A., K.S., K., D.K.A.: data recording. I.R., S.R.K., V.G., R.B.: sesame study under field conditions. R.P., V.R.: artificial screening of sesame. K.T., A.K.S.: sesame study under drought stress conditions. U.B.A.: review and editing. C.C.V., G.S., P.S., P.K., K.N.G., G.P.R., H.R., K.S.: sesame study for biotic stress. S.L., V.S.R., NAS, S.S.: oil, protein, lignan, fatty acid estimation. A.S., R.C., S.S.G.: sesame study under abiotic stress. K.P.: review and editing. S.R.: sesame phenotyping and waterlogging stress. M.S., A.J, R.J.: provided seeds from genebank. A.K., K.S., G.P.S., S.K.: project administration. A.R.: data analysis, review, and editing. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
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Yadav, R., Vishwakarma, H., Satpathy, S. et al. A multidimensional core set development of sesame germplasm leveraging agro-morphological traits diversity for genetic improvement and climate resilience. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-20647-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-20647-w
