Study of drought stress using PEG-6000 on germination stage of sesame germplasm (Sesamum indicum L.) under laboratory conditions

Abstract

Sesame is a drought tolerant oilseed crop, but it is sensitive to drought at germination stage. This study was conducted to determine the effect of drought stress on germination of Eight hundred twenty nine sesame germplasm. The experiment was conducted in the laboratory of the Project Co-ordinating Unit, All India Coordinated Research Project on Sesame and Niger (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), JNKVV Campus, Jabalpur (MP). Eight hundred twenty nine sesame germplasm and two levels of drought (0.0 (control) and -4.9 bar) were the treatment tested in the experiment. Study of boxplot analysis results which is used to visually summarize and compare groups of data. On considering the values of germination percent were found maximum in SI-1116, followed by IS-158-3-84, PCU-130, PCU134, NIC-17257, NIC-8399-I, S-0534, RJS-194, JLT-8, IS-130, NIC-17868, NIC-7795-A, ES-10-A and EC-138836-A at -4.9 bar and being identified as the most tolerant germplasm among those tested in this experiment. Distinction of significant difference in germination of germplasm in induced water stress suggested that this parameter could be used as criteria in to screen germplasm to identify those most drought stress at germination stage.