Genetics of early and total yield in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench)

Abstract

An investigation was carried out during summer and rainy season of 2009 to study the gene action and inheritance pattern of early and total yield in two okra hybrids (Punjab-8 x Arya Dhanlaxhmi and Punjab-8 x Pusa Sawani) by using six generation mean analysis. F1 means of both the crosses surpassed both of their corresponding parental means suggesting over dominance for days to first flowering, days to first fruit set and total yield per plant. Generation mean analysis of early and total yield revealed the presence of epistasis and the magnitude of dominance gene effects was more than that of additive gene effects for all the traits. The dominance (h) and dominance x dominance (l) components have opposite sign for all the traits which indicated the presence of duplicate type of epistasis. Hence this will reduce the net gain occurring from heterozygosity due to cancellation of dominance and epistasis effects. Such situation is not very conducive for exploitation in the form of F1 hybrids. Therefore, genetic improvement of okra with respect to these characters in this material can be made through pure line breeding or inbred development