Abstract
Heritability, gene action and number of genes moderating the inheritance of pod yield were investigated in five crosses of West African okra accessions. Parents with variation for pod yield were used in the hybridization process. Generations developed (parents, F1, F2, and BC1 BC2) were planted for evaluation in a randomized complete block design with two replications. The results showed that the additive - dominance model was adequate in explaining the inheritance of pod yield. This was ascribed to a non significant estimate of A, B and C scaling tests. The results of the generation mean analysis indicated that the additive genetic effects [d] significantly accounted for a large proportion of variability observed for pod yield in the crosses evaluated. A partial dominance loci (H/D<0.75) and over dominance loci (H/D>1.00) revealed an intermediate performance and the possibility of developing hybrids for pod yield. Narrow sense heritability estimates were low to moderate. An additive genetic effect suggested that selection among a segregating population could provide an average improvement in the performance of pod yield in subsequent generations. The study indicated that the inheritance of pod yield was polygenic, thus safeguarding against genetic loss of pod yield in the selection process.
