what is reason behind the large variation in chromosome numbers of different species of okra and How to overcome these barriers for utilization of wild species for breeding?
Polyploidy is very common in plants and is a force in evolution. It can be spontaneous or induced.If the former is your right and your are thinking about that I say the species is evolving,auytopolypolidy mostly. Pteridophyts like Ophioglossum show very high level of polyploidy so that it has some 5000 or more chrmosomes,
thanks for the valuable information sir. How to do precise karyotyping without ambigiuty in Okra. Many scientists reported different chromosome numbers for the same species.
If you want to count chromosomes yourself, you can do root squashes. Take a look at the dogwood paper listed on my profile for material and methods of cytology. In that method we used hydrochloric acid and ethanol to break down the cell walls. You can also use an enzyme solution to break down the cell walls, however the enzymes are expensive.
If you want to overcome ploidy barriers to introgress characters from wild species, then you can do a couple things. You can use the parent with the higher ploidy as the female parent, which can address the issue of the endosperm balance.
Your other option is to double the chromosomes of the parent that has a lower chromosome number. Then conduct your crosses.
Having said all that, I don't know much about okra. So maybe these things have been tried and are not viable options. Or maybe no one has tried these things, yet.