Anjitha - A New Okra Variety through Induced Mutation in Interspecific Hybrids of Abelmoschus spp

Studies on interspecific hybrids of okra between A. esculentus (cultivated type) and A. manihot (wild type) revealed that no useful recombinants were obtained from the conventional breeding programme because of the strong linkage between yellow vein mosaic (YVM) resistance genes and the wild character of A. manihot. This study was aimed at breaking this undesirable linkage through gamma irradiation (100 200, 300 and 400 Gray) of F1 seeds obtained by interspecific hybridization between A. esculentus var. Kiran and A. manihot and further evaluating and selecting high yielding YVM resistant types from the generations segregating until F6M6. The mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency increased with increasing doses of Gamma-rays. In the segregating generations, the irradiated treatments were late flowering and had more leaves, flowers and fruits per plant. Average fruit weight was maximum in 200Gy, while fruit yield was maximum in 400Gy due to larger number of fruits. A few high yielding disease-resistant plants resembling the cultivated plants were obtained in 300Gy which suggested that 300Gy could be the ideal irradiation dose in okra. Superior genotypes selected from F6M6 generation based on yield and YVM resistance were advanced to CYTs and farm trials. Cultivar AE18 outyielded the others and was released as 'Anjitha' during 2006, for cultivation in the Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala. Anjitha is a high yielding variety having the fruit characters and quality of the cultivated parent A. esculentus var. Kiran combined with the YVM-resistant character of the wild parent A. manihot. (author)