FLOW CYTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF NUCLEAR DNA BETWEEN OKRA LANDRACES (ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS L.)

Okra Abelmoschus esculentus L. (Moench), is an economically important vegetable crop grown in tropical and sub-tropical as well as Mediterranean countries. The genome size of the Abelmoschus genus species is still rare. Ploidy determinations have traditionally been done by counting chromosomes of stained root tips, but this method is laborious and often difficult with species which have small chromosomes and high ploidy levels and can lead to misclassified. Flow cytometry has been widely used in various aspects of plant research, such as the determination of the DNA nuclear content. Nuclear DNA size of fifteen okra genotype was measured using flow cytometry. The data showed variation between Turkish genotype and Jordanian genotype. Genome size of okra ranged from 3.98 pg 2C^-1 in Jordanian landrace to 17.67pg 2C^-1 in Turkish landrace. The 2C genome size in Mbp ranged from 3897-17321 among Abelmoschus esculentus genotypes. Further studies is recommended to accurate chromosome count to be linked with the genome size.