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Yellow vein mosaic virus can cut okra yields by 50 to 95%, and resistance in popular varieties keeps breaking down. With India’s national plant gene bank, we screened 158 okra lines in the field to find new sources of resistance.
Research question
The virus spreads through whiteflies, and resistance in widely grown varieties has broken down in many places. Wild relatives of okra carry resistance genes, but few have been tested side by side in the field under real disease pressure.
Methods
Three stages: collect, expose, score.
Results
Disease came earlier and harder in the March sowing: 69 lines were highly susceptible, against 47 in February.
Number of lines in each disease class, by sowing date.
Data: Results section of the paper. Classes by per cent disease index: resistant under 10, tolerant 10 to 30, susceptible 30 to 70, highly susceptible over 70.
Results
Three wild-derived lines from the same cross stayed resistant at both sowing dates; none of the wild derivatives was highly susceptible.
Importance score from a partial least squares model (VIP). Above 1 counts as relevant.
Data: Table 3 of the paper. + means more of it went with more disease; − means less.
Implications
Higher humidity and dew point, and less sunlight, went with more disease. Resistant donors like these are where virus-resistant vegetable breeding starts.
See Seed GeneticsThe paper
The present study was conducted to screen 158 okra germplasm including parental lines, wild Abelmoschus species, wild Abelmoschus derived materials and cultivated A. esculentus, against yellow vein mosaic virus (YVMV) under natural field conditions at two different dates of sowing during Summer 2018. YVMV disease incidence was initiated within 28 days after sowing and reached its peak in 20 days time in March sown plot as compared to 35 and 30 days, respectively in the February sown plot. Some of the wild Abelmoschus derivatives and okra accessions, viz., C350mizo-2(5), C350mizo-3(3), C350mizo-34, C350mizo-40, IC090379 (A. tetraphyllus), C2106mizo-8, C2106mizo-20, C350mizo-30(1), C2106mizo-33, C350mizo-5(8), C350mizo-17(3), C2741mizo-8, and RJR 124 recorded either resistant or tolerant reactions in both experiments. These could be utilized in future okra crop improvement programmes for developing cultivars resistant to yellow vein mosaic disease.
Anitha, K., Holajjer, P., Ajay, B. C., Sairam Reddy, P., John, J., Parameswari, B., & Celia Chalam, V. (2026). Field screening for identification of sources of resistance in okra (Abelmoschus spp) germplasm against Okra yellow vein mosaic virus. Journal of Horticultural Sciences, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.24154/jhs.v21i1.4025
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