Sesame seeds and their edible oil are highly nutritious and rich in mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Bioactive compounds such as sterols, tocopherols, and sesamol provide significant medicinal benefits. The high oil content (50%) and favorable mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acid balance, as well as resilience to water stress, make sesame a promising candidate crop for global agricultural expansion. However, sesame production faces challenges such as low yields, poor response to agricultural inputs, and losses due to capsule dehiscence. To enhance yield, traits like determinate growth, dwarfism, a high harvest index, non-shattering capsules, disease resistance, and photoperiod sensitivity are needed. These traits can be achieved through variation or induced mutation breeding. Crossbreeding methods often result in unwanted genetic changes. The gene editing CRISPR/Cas9 technology has the potential to suppress detrimental alleles and improve the fatty acid profile by inhibiting polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis. Even though sesame is an orphan crop, it has entered the genomic era, with available sequences assisting molecular breeding efforts. This progress aids in associating single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and simple sequence repeats (SSR) with key economic traits, as well as identifying genes related to adaptability, oil production, fatty acid synthesis, and photosynthesis. Additionally, transcriptomic research can reveal genes involved in abiotic stress responses and adaptation to diverse climates. The mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) can identify loci linked to key traits such as capsule size, seed count per capsule, and capsule number per plant. This article reviews recent advances in sesame breeding, discusses ongoing challenges, and explores potential strategies for future improvement. Hence, integrating advanced genomic tools and breeding strategies provides promising ways to enhance sesame production to meet global demands.

Sesame seeds and their edible oil are highly nutritious and rich in mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Bioactive compounds such as sterols, tocopherols, and sesamol provide significant medicinal benefits. The high oil content (50%) and favorable mono-and polyunsaturated fatty acids balance, as well as sesame's resilience to water stress makes, make it a promising candidate for global agricultural expansion. However, sesame production faces challenges such as low yields, poor response to agricultural inputs, and losses due to capsule dehiscence. To enhance yield, traits like determinate growth, dwarfism, high harvest index, non-shattering capsules, and photoperiod sensitivity are needed. These traits can be achieved through variation or induced mutation breeding. Traditional breeding methods often result in unwanted genetic changes. The CRISPR/Cas9 technology has the potential to suppress detrimental alleles and improve the fatty acid profile by inhibiting polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis. Even though sesame is an orphan crop, it has entered the genomic era, with available sequences assisting molecular breeding efforts. This progress aids in associating single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and simple sequence repeats (SSRs) with key economic traits, as well as identifying genes related to adaptability, oil production, fatty acid synthesis, and photosynthesis. Additionally, transcriptomic studies can reveal genes involved in abiotic stress responses and adaptation to diverse climates. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping can identify loci linked to crucial traits such as capsule size, seed count per capsule, and capsule number per plant. This paper reviews recent advances in sesame breeding, discusses ongoing challenges, and explores potential strategies for future improvement. Hence, integrating advanced genomic tools and breeding strategies provides promising ways to enhance sesame production to meet global demands.

Sunflower is a crop species that may be exploited for its oil and protein contents. The development of new sunflower hybrids adapted to the current environmental conditions marked by global climate change may help reduce yield losses due to environmental conditions. In this background, breeding lines differing for the days to floral initiation were crossed in line × tester fashion to yield 16 singlecross hybrid combinations. Parental accessions ranged between 58–69 days to reach flowering. Hybrids were evaluated during spring seasons for phenological traits and yield and oil quality traits under a randomized complete block design with three blocks. Genetic analysis was carried out, and gene action, along with genotypic and phenotypic correlation, was also estimated. Gene action showed that days to 50% flowering have a preponderance of dominance variance (σ2 d=1.95), whereas a small magnitude of additive variance (σ2 a=0.50) was also detected. However, the direction of dominance was toward early maturing parental material during the 1st year of evaluation and toward late maturing parents during the 2nd year of evaluation. Heritability estimates were low, ranging from 0.29-0.51. Evaluation of the trial showed a significant contribution of environmental variance in the phenotype of the days to flowering. Therefore, parental material and hybrids may be evaluated under multiple environments before they are characterized into various maturity groups. Breeding lines such as C-208 and C-116 were useful parental lines for breeding early-maturing hybrids, as these breeding lines had significant negative general combining effects in both years. Among male parents, RH-344 and RH-347 were negative general combiners and could be exploited to produce early-maturing hybrids. Breeding lines B-112 and RSIN.82 were good positive general combiners for the development of late-maturing hybrids. C-208 × RH-344 was a superior hybrid in terms of early maturity and can be used in future breeding programs.