Exploring the Concealed Treasure: Insights into the Genetic Variability of Crop Wild Relatives (CWR's) of Okra

Wild okra relatives constitute a vast genetic diversity for breeding, especially for stress tolerance and fruit quality improvement. However, their potential remains largely unexplored and underutilized, giving opportunities for future research. Therefore, this investigation was undertaken at ICAR-IIVR, Varanasi, during Kharif season of 2022-23 for evaluating 93 okra accessions with the objectives of assessing the magnitude of genetic variability and novelty. Data was collected on 16 qualitative characters by following the IBPGR descriptor [1]. Variations were observed among the different accessions based on their vegetative traits, inflorescence and fruit characteristics. Results obtained in this study revealed a high level of variability among the genotypes for the majority of the qualitative traits, except general aspect of growth, positioning of fruit on main stem and number of ridges per fruit. The vegetative growth characters viz., branching habit, stem pubescence and stem color exhibited a large diversity in the genotypes studied. In respect of branching habits it was obtained with 45.16% of strong branches, 33.33% of medium branches and 21.51% of orthotropic (single stem) branches recorded for genotypes. Stem pubescence varied among accessions with 58.06% of glabrous stem, 33.33% of slightly pubescent and 8.60% of conspicuously pubescent observed across all accessions. In the context of stem color, 50 accessions (53.76%) exhibited a typical green stem, 31 accessions (33.33%) exhibited a green stem with red patches, and 12 accessions (12.90%) showed a pronounced purple stem. This genetic variation providing a foundation for future breeding programs, enabling the development of new okra varieties with superior combinations of desirable traits and enhance qualitative traits of okra.