Ten quantitative agromorpho-economic traits, six inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers, and three
sequenced regions were employed to study intra-specific genetic diversity among twenty-eight accessions
of West African and Asian okra (Abelmoschus spp L.) collected from eight geographical regions of
Ghana. Pod yield per plant was analysed as dependent variable in relation to other agromorphoeconomic
traits, showing the correlation and contribution of each trait to crop yield. 50% germination
and flowering were the most significant traits followed by plant height and average seeds per plant.
Principal coordinate analysis defined three sets of traits, while Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering
(AHC) defined three clusters of the germplasms. ISSR detected very low level of polymorphism among
the accessions. Testing the correlation between molecular data and morphological traits using Mantel
test showed a significant positive correlation (r-value = 0.71, 0.90) with 50% flowering, fruiting and number
of leaves per plant. Eclectic variation between Indiana and the rest of the accessions for both
agromorpho-economic traits and molecular markers affirms its potential usefulness as a source of diverse
genes for future breeding programmes. Sequencing of regions from all accessions, suggests that they are
identical with a common ancestry. Outcomes of this study is timely for an ongoing okra hybridisation
programme in Ghana.
Intra-specific variation in West African and Asian germplasm of okra (Abelmoschus spp L.)