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Genetic diversity in South Asian okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) germplasm collection
Author(s) -
BISHT I S.,
MAHAJAN R K.,
RANA R S.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1995.tb05388.x
Subject(s) - germplasm , biology , principal component analysis , genetic diversity , crop , abelmoschus , multivariate statistics , multivariate analysis , genetic variation , genetic variability , sri lanka , microbiology and biotechnology , horticulture , agronomy , south asia , genotype , statistics , demography , population , biochemistry , mathematics , sociology , gene , history , ethnology
SUMMARY Genetic diversity for a range of morphological characters within 260 accessions of okra collected from India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka was investigated through the use of uni‐, bi‐ and multivariate statistics. The pubescence and pigmentation of various plant parts, among qualitative descriptors, seemed to be most significant in the analysis of variability. The multivariate analysis, mainly on quantitative descriptors, using principal component and non‐hierarchical cluster analysis suggested that days to flowering, plant height, and various fruit characteristics were important components of variability and contributed significantly to the total variation observed. Only two of the 10 principal components had eigen values more than 1 and together accounted for 54.52% of the total variation. The accessions were grouped into eight distinct clusters which further emphasised the relative contribution of various quantitative characters to the total variability. The pattern of genetic variation is of great importance both to germplasm collectors and plant breeders. Specific accessions were also identified that could be passed on to breeders for utilisation in crop improvement programmes.