Insight into the Morphological Diversification and Viral Disease Resistance in the Interspecific Crosses of Abelmoschus esculentus × Abelomsochus moschatus

Yellow Vien Mosaic Virus (YVMV) and Okra Enation Leaf Curl Virus (OELCV) are major threat of okra production in India. Due to instantly breakdown of resistance and absence of durable source of resistance in the cultivated species it’s become more challenging for okra growers. Therefore, interspecific hybridization is considered as a reliable method for stable resistance. In the present experiment crossing of 7 wild accessions of A. moschatus and 3 cultivated okra were done during Kharif season of 2022-23 and crossed hybrid were grown in next year Kharif season. Further, field screening of 7 wild (A. moschatus), 3 cultivated (A. esculentus) and their 21 hybrids was carried out and assess morphological diversity to know the expressions of various traits at the research farms of the ICAR-IIVR, Varanasi. Out of 10 parents and 21 hybrids, only two parents and 6 hybrids were highly resistant for both YVMV and OELCV disease. The remaining 5 parents viz., (EC-329394, EC-360953, IC-039308, IC-469583 and IC-47737) and 15 hybrids were categorized into five distinct groups based on their disease response, ranging from Resistant (R) to Highly Susceptible (HS). The range of percent disease incidence varied from 10.00 to 90.00. Significant differences were observed for all quantitative traits for both parents and hybrids. In interspecific hybridization qualitative traits were resemble to the A. moschatus which indicates dominance of wild species for qualitative traits. Whereas most of the quantitative traits were express intermediate of both parent which indicate incomplete dominance for these traits. Significant differences among hybrids and parents indicate that there are great opportunities for breeders to diversify okra through interspecific hybridization.