Inheritance of Seed Coat Color in Sesame

Inheritance pattern of sesame seed coat color measured by colorimeter was analyzed by diallel cross method at the parents and F₁ generation. The ratio of general combining ability to specific combining ability (GCA/SCA) for L* (Lightness), a* (Redness) and b* (Yellowness) value was 4.20, 5.48 and 4.42, respectively indicating relatively higher additive effect to the inheritance of sesame seed coat color. Broad sense heritabilities for L*, a* and b* value were all 0.99 showing relatively small effect of environmental variance to the inheritance. Direction of dominance effect for L* and a* value showed over-dominance, but, incase of b* value, it showed incomplete dominance. Black seed coated ‘Soonheuckkkae’ and brown seed coated ‘Iksanjaerae’ showed higher proportion of positive alleles than those of other varieties at the analysis of Wr / Vr regression graph. Numbers of effective acting genes for L*, a* and b* were to confer 0.2, 0.4 and 0.7, respectively indicating controlling of minor genes to the inheritance of sesame seed coat color.