Integrating phenotypic, molecular, and bioinformatics approaches for developing drought-tolerant sesame

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Plant Breeding
• Genetics

Background:

• Climate change poses challenges to crop production, necessitating climate-resilient varieties.
• Sesame (Sesamum indicum) is an important oilseed crop vulnerable to abiotic stresses like drought.
• Developing drought-tolerant sesame is crucial for food security and agricultural sustainability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify stable, high-yielding sesame lines with enhanced drought tolerance.
• To integrate phenotypic, molecular, and bioinformatics approaches for effective crop improvement.
• To understand genetic diversity and identify potential drought-tolerance genes in sesame.

Main Methods:

• Multi-environment trials (MET) across 18 limited irrigation environments.
• Phenotypic evaluation of seed yield and stability analysis (AMMI, GGE biplot).
• SCoT-PCR (Start Codon Targeted Polymorphism Polymerase Chain Reaction) for genetic diversity and bioinformatics analysis.

Main Results:

• Significant genotype-by-environment interactions were observed for seed yield.
• Four stable, high-yielding sesame lines (C5-8, C6-9, C6-11, C9-3) were identified.
• SCoT-PCR revealed genetic diversity, with primer SCoT-21 showing 88.24% polymorphism. Bioinformatics identified potential drought-tolerance genes (e.g., XPD, malonyl-coenzyme transferase-like).

Conclusions:

• The integrated approach successfully identified promising drought-tolerant sesame lines.
• Findings provide valuable genetic resources for breeding climate-resilient sesame varieties.
• This study demonstrates the utility of combining diverse methodologies for crop improvement.