**4. Genetic diversity study in** *Abelmoschus*

The accessibility of the genetic diversity and its collection, maintenance and conservation is essential for the crop improvement program [55]. *Abelmoschus* is an important genus in terms of nutrition, pharmaceuticals point of view, due to it has high industrial and economic importance. Despite that very slight attention has been paid to assess genetic diversity of *Abelmoschus* species at molecular level. The conservation and distribution of the germplasm genetic diversity of *Abelmoschus* species has been studied with the various DNA markers. Techniques based on the genetic material such as Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) have been employed to assess the genetic diversity in the five species of *Abelmoschus* [56]. Similarly Martinello et al. also successfully employed RAPD marker to study of genetic diversity within 42 accessions of *Abelmoschus* species. The study revealed existence of the most important genetic heterogeneity in the tested germplasm [57]. RAPD makers were applied over the okra accessions which lead to 96% polymorphism [58] along with the phenotypic markers [59, 60]. Sequence related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) and phenotypic markers determined the genetic diversity of Turkish okra. These markers showed 50% polymorphism among the studied germplasm and useful for studying diversity and relationships among them and have potential marker aided selection, linkage mapping and evolutionary studies [61]. Cross species Simple sequence repeats (SSR) primers were used to study genetic diversity of 20 [62], 65 [63] and 24 [64] different accessions of okra by different scientists. SSR markers help to discrimination among okra accessions and provide vital information for use in the improvement of genomic resource in vegetable crop [64]. AFLP markers were separated the Greek landraces from other significant pool of variation [65]. Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers and morphological markers were effectively used to study 28 genotypes of West African okra [66].
