Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is a significant oilseed crop that is cultivated in various regions across the globe. Its seed is well known for its high oil content (50-60%), thus earning it the title of the supreme oilseed. Nigeria, being among the top 10 largest producers of sesame, possesses immense potential to enhance production for the purpose of promoting exports. Sesame exhibits extensive genetic diversity, which can aid breeders in the development of novel varieties, provided that they possess a comprehensive understanding of the genetic distance that exist between different accessions. This study aimed to analyze 12 sesame accessions obtained from five states of Northern Nigeria (Benue, Kaduna, Kogi, Nassarawa, and Niger) using RAPD analysis in order to discern the genetic differences among them.Among the 12 accessions, the 10 RAPD primers demonstrated their efficacy in amplifying genomic DNA, culminating in the production of a noteworthy 63 RAPD fragments. Remarkably, a significant 88.89% of these fragments displayed a polymorphic nature. Each primer exhibited the capacity to generate a range of 3 to 8 amplified fragments, with an average of precisely 6.3 bands per primer.A dendrogram constructed from pooled data revealed 11 clusters showing a high level of polymorphism. A single accession (BE-02) was relatively different from rest of the accessions at 4999.50 similarity coefficient exhibiting genetic divergent while two accessions (BE-01 and NA-02) were clustered together indicating genetic similarity which could be used efficiently in Sesame breeding programme.The results revealed that RAPD markers can reliably evaluate genetic variation in the sesame germplasm.

Keywords: Genetic diversity, Polymorphism, RAPD, sesame, Sesamum indicum