**8. Conclusion**

*Landraces - Traditional Variety and Natural Breed*

studies for the improvement of this crop plant.

**6. Proteomic studies in okra**

in the presence of NaCl.

**7. Discussion**

in diverse okra germplasm by many workers and found informative for classification and understanding of okra germplasm. Ravishankar et al. [34] first reported development of genomic SSR markers in okra using Roche 454 Titanium pyrosequencing technology. A total of 61,722 reads were generated from 979,806 bp data. These reads were assembled into 3735 contigs of which 2708 had microsatellites. Primers were designed for 402 microsatellites, from which 50 randomly selected

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are regulatory RNAs which plays a crucial role in regulating gene expressions at post-transcriptional levels in disease conditions. Vimala Kumar et al. [38] applied next generation sequencing approach for global profiling to characterize the miRNAs and their associated pre-miRNAs. Data analysis using miRPlant revealed 128 known and 845 novel miRNA candidates. They identified 57 known miRNAs of 15 families and 18 novel miRNAs. A total of 845 novel candidates were predicted when using cotton as a reference genome which is closely related to *A. esculentus.* In 2018, Zhang and co-workers used transcriptome approach to identify the transcripts involved in the synthesis of bioactive compounds like flavonoids and polysaccharides in various organs like roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits. They have identified 293,971 unique unigene sequences, 931 unigenes related to enzymes of flavonoids biosynthesis were identified and quantified. 691 unigenes encoded 13 key enzymes related to fructose and mannose metabolism. The transcriptome data will be useful for the gene expression analysis study of the genes encoding bioactive compounds in okra. Priyavathi et al. [36] reported high quality leaf transcriptome of *A. esculentus* from leaf samples. 16,307 unigenes, 76 transcription factor, 9,578 potential SSRs have been identified from *A. esculentus* leaf transcriptome. The *A. esculentus* sequence information presented in this study will be a valuable resource for further molecular genetics and functional genomics

Proteomics analysis is a tool to facilitate the study of global protein expression, and to provide a wealth of information on the role of individual proteins in specific biological processes. Due to the complex allopolyploid genome of okra little attention has been paid to the genetic improvement of this crop until recently. Soil salinity is one of the main abiotic stresses limiting plant growth and agricultural productivity. Understanding the mechanisms that protect plants from salt stress will help in the development of salt-stress-tolerant crop. Using TMT-based proteomic technique in 2019, Zhan and associates analyzed the differentially expressed proteins between the NaCl-treated seedlings and control. They have identified a total of 7179 proteins, there were 317 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), of which 165 proteins were upregulated and 152 proteins downregulated

The molecular markers can be effectively used to enhance okra breeding programme through marker-assisted selection (MAS). Marker assisted breeding allows selection of desired trait at early stage which leads to accelerated development of improved varieties. Although, molecular markers have been broadly employed for DNA fingerprinting, gene mapping and gene tagging, seed purity testing and to know the molecular basis of heterosis in various crops, but in okra its use is still

SSR primers were standardized for amplification of okra DNA.

**90**

Okra is considered as a non model crop with a complex genome. Genomic studies like genome sequencing and transcriptome sequencing will help in identification of genes/transcripts for important agronomic traits like disease resistance in okra. Tools like RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing can be employed for imparting resistance as well as functional characterization of genes. Identification of genes/ transcripts and markers linked to the resistance genes will help in breeding for resistance varieties. Also, there is requirement to bred durable/stable resistance against multiple diseases. ELCV is emerging as new havoc for okra along with YVMV which may be more difficult for production of okra in future. Therefore, gene pyramiding for combating multiple disease resistance genes in various genetic backgrounds should be done. There is also need to breed varieties/hybrids tolerant to abiotic stresses like cold, moisture and salt stress in the changing climatic scenario.
