Characterization of primary genepool for enation leaf curl disease resistance and morpho-horticultural traits in okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench]

Abstract

The present investigation was planned to examine genetic parameters such as GCV, PCV, heritability and GA, along with correlations, diversity, path coefficients and PCA from data on 100 okra genotypes. High GCV and PCV were observed for ELCV (CI), NEB, LA (0) and YPP (g), NH, IL (cm) and NFPP, whereas moderate GCV and PCV were observed for FFN, BA (0), and FL (cm). High heritability coupled with high GAM was observed for almost all the characters studied, except FL (cm), PH (cm), AFW, DFF and DFH show low heritability with low GAM. The YPP, NEB, ELCV (CI), LA (0), NH and IL (cm) showed high genetic advance that helped in effective and reliable selection through these characters for okra improvement. DFF was significantly positively correlated with D50F and DFH. While the negative association with ELCV (CI) was positively correlated with BA (0.397), it was negatively correlated with FL (-0.308), NFPP (-0.627) and NH (-0.535). YPP resulted in a significant positive correlation with AFW, NFPP and NH (0.867) but has a negative correlation with ELCV (CI). The NFPP had a maximum direct effect on AFW (g) followed by FFN and NH and the residual effect of the path analysis was low (0.008), suggesting the inclusion of maximum yield influencing characters in the present study and identified as key traits for developing high fruit yielding genotypes in okra for future breeding program. The genotypes were divided into eight clusters using squared Euclidean distance. The results revealed the presence of considerable genetic diversity in the first three principal components contributed to 53.2% of total variability during the study.