To investigate the genetic structure of different sesame traits, 7 genotypes, including Ardestan, Sirjan, Fars, Sabzevar, Jiroft, Oltan and TS-3 were studied in the form of a 7 x 7 one-way diallel design in the research farm of the Faculty of Agriculture at University of Birjand during 2015-2018.The traits measured included plant height, height to the first capsule, number of auxiliary branches, number of leaves, leaf length, days to 50 % flowering, days to 90 % flowering, days to physiological maturity, number of capsules per plant, biological yield, grain yield, harvest index, number of seeds per capsule, capsule weight, capsule length, capsule width, chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll, oil and protein percentage.Hayman′s variance analysis showed that there were significant components a, b and b3 in all traits and components b1 and b2 in most traits. Parameters D, H1, and H2 were significant and the parameters F, h2 and E were not significant for most traits. The average degree of dominance (√H1/D) showed incomplete dominance and over dominance for all traits. The H2/(4H1) parameter was less than 0.25 in all traits except the day to 50 % flowering, suggesting that increasing and decreasing genes did not have symmetrical distribution among the parents. The parameter (√(4DH1)+F)/√(4DH1)-F ) showed symmetrical and asymmetrical distributions for the studied traits. In most of the traits, there was a dominant gene block controlling the traits. Broad sense and narrow sense heritabilities ranged 0.47-0.99 and 0.17-0.98, respectively. In general, all traits were controlled by genes with additive and dominance effects, so it is possible to select and produce hybrids in sesame. Considering that Fars, Oltan and TS-3 genotypes had the most dominant alleles, it is recommended that in future studies, attention should be paid to these three genotypes.
