Abstract
The present study was carried out during 1996, 1997 and 1998 to estimate the additive, dominance and epistatic components of genetic variation for yield, yield components and wilt infection by using 90 triple test cross families and their parents, F1 and F2 in each of four sesame crosses, i.e. Bengalian×Giza 32 (TTC1), Intro 259×Giza 25 (TTC2), Intro 413×Intro 777 (TTC3) and Shandaweel 5×Line 107 (TTC4). Mean squares from the genetic analysis of variance and the overall epistatic gene effects were highly significant differences for all studied characters. The [i] type (additive×additive) was the most important epistatic effect for height of the first capsule (TTC4), number of branches/plant (TTC1 and TTC3), length of the fruiting zone (TTC1, TTC2 and TTC3), days to the first flower and number of capsules/plant (TTC1, TTC2 and TTC4), 1000-seed (TTC3), wilt infection percentage (TTC3 and TTC4) and plant height, capsule length and seed yield/plant in all crosses. The ratio of (H/D)1/2 confirmed the presence of partial dominance for all studied traits. The highest proportion of recombinant lines was obtained for days to the first flower, number of branches/plant, height of the first capsule and seed yield/plant in TTC3 and plant height, capsule length, length of the fruiting zone number of capsules/plant, 1000-seed weight and oil percentage in TTC2.