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Okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench] also known as bhindi or lady’s finger is an important vegetable crop in India, West Africa, South Africa, Brazil, USA and Turkey. It belongs to the family Malvaceae. Okra is mainly grown in tropics and subtropics of the world. The studies regarding the molecular marker development are very limited; still there is no SSR development from comprehensive transcriptome data in this crop. This study presents the first comprehensive transcriptome data, using RNA from different parts of okra such as root, stem, leaf, bud, flower, different stages of developing pod and from twenty days old plantlets of heat, drought and salt stressed. A total of 10,492 SSRs were identified in this study. Among these tri repeats (2112) were found to be predominant followed by di (1285), tetra (149), penta (24) and hexa. Thirty four SSRs were standardized for PCR and screened for 36 okra genotypes and accessions. Among these 18 SSR primers were found to be highly polymorphic with the PIC values more than 0.5. And the overall results of analysis showed that expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.000 to 0.971 with a mean of 0.593; the values for observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.000 to 0.794 with the mean of 0.254; the number of allele per locus ranged from 1 to 30 and the Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) ranged from 0.000 to 0.940 with the mean value of 0.5546. The genic SSR markers developed will help in germplasm characterization mapping, genetic diversity studies, molecular assisted breeding and also in gene discovery.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, highly conserved non-coding RNA molecules involved in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. Gene expression involves post-transcriptional gene regulation by miRNAs. miRNAs are formed from precursor RNA molecules that fold into a stem loop secondary structure. The mature miRNA is one end of the precursor miRNA, defined by the cut from ‘Drosha’ on either the 5’ or 3’ arm. In this study, we have used a bioinformatics approach to identify miRNAs in 3,361 contigs obtained from partial genome sequence data of Abelmoschus esculentus (okra) sequenced by NGS technology. Using C-mii and psRNA Target tools, we identified two miRNAs and their target RNAs for which a regulatory miRNA binding has been verified. Their targets consisted of transcription factors involved in growth and development, gene regulation and metabolism. Phylogenetic analysis of the newly identified miRNA family has been done to compare their level of conservation with respect to the other members of the plant kingdom.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, highly conserved non-coding RNA molecules involved in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. Gene expression involves post-transcriptional gene regulation by miRNAs. miRNAs are formed from precursor RNA molecules that fold into a stem loop secondary structure. The mature miRNA is one end of the precursor miRNA, defined by the cut from 'Drosha' on either the 5' or 3' arm. In this study, we have used a bioinformatics approach to identify miRNAs in 3,361 contigs obtained from partial genome sequence data of Abelmoschus esculentus (okra) sequenced by NGS technology. Using C-mii and psRNA Target tools, we identified two miRNAs and their target RNAs for which a regulatory miRNA binding has been verified. Their targets consisted of transcription factors involved in growth and development, gene regulation and metabolism. Phylogenetic analysis of the newly identified miRNA family has been done to compare their level of conservation with respect to the other members of the plant kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inheritance of geneic male sterility in GMS line MS-1 of okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench.] was studied using F1, F2 and test-cross generations of crosses between GMS line MS-1 and normal fertile genotypes, and the varieties Arka Anamika, Parbhani Kranti, Arka Abhay, IIHR-108-1-31, IIHR-109-20-6, IIHR-116-23-6, IIHR- 180-6-3, IIHR-161-10-1 and IIHR-130-2-10. All the F1 were found fertile. Segregation of pollen fertility in F2 and test - cross generations involving ms1 was segregated in the ratio 1 fertile: 1 sterile, respectively. This indicated that GMS trait in the line is controlled by a single recessive gene (ms1ms1). Large-scale F1 hybrid seed production in okra becomes rather slow due to the tedious hand-emasculation, followed by hand-pollination, incurring additional labour and cost of F1 seed production. In comparison to fertile lines, this saves approximately 70% time and manual labour. Use of Geneic Male Sterile (GMS) line MS-1 can make F1 hybrid seed production in okra easy and more economical compared to hand-emasculation.