Abstract

                                Okra is India’s most widely grown tropical and subtropical vegetable crop.Despite widespread cultivation, crop yield and productivity remain subpar.Yellow vein mosaic virus (YVMV) disease is a serious threat to Indian okraproduction, causing yield losses ranging from 17.09 to 96.49 per cent. In thiscontext, the present study was aimed to assess the variability and characterassociation of 74 elite germplasm accessions for thirteen quantitative andquality traits. High phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation (PCV andGCV) were observed among all evaluated traits except fruit diameter, whichshowed a moderate PCV and GCV. All traits had high heritability and highgenetic advance, implying that the heritability was most likely due to additivegene effects. Direct selection of these traits would be advantageous for okraimprovement, especially in developing a YVMV resistant genotype. Fruit yieldper plant exhibited a significant and positive genotypic as well as phenotypiccorrelation with fruit weight, fruit length, peroxidase activity, polyphenolactivity, fruit diameter, total phenolic content and plant height, whereas nodeat which the first flower appeared and YVMV were negatively correlated tofruit yield per plant. Correlation studies indicated YVMV resistance towardshigh total phenolic content, polyphenol oxidase, and peroxidase. The highpositive direct effects on fruit yield per plant were observed for fruit weightfollowed by number of fruit per plant and total phenolic content. This studyrevealed that simultaneous selection of these traits can help in increasingyield and YVMV resistance.

Key words : Okra; Genetic variability; Correlation; Path analysis; YVMV