Abstract
Female plants of several dioecious angiosperms are commercially valued for production of fruits or seeds, viz. papaya, nutmeg, pistachio, kiwi fruit and jojoba. To make the cultivation profitable it is necessary to grow more female than male plants. To discriminate between male and female plants, sex-specific molecular markers have been identified in a few dioecious species such as Silene and pistachio. However, accurate and convenient sex diagnostic methods for early sexing of seedlings are not available to date. For the first time, we report here a PCR-based Seedling Sex Diagnostic Assay (SSDA) specially designed for early sexing of papaya seedlings. We have developed a male-specific SCAR marker in papaya by cloning a male-specific RAPD (831 bp) fragment and designing longer primers. The potential of this SCAR marker is further exploited to develop a simplified and highly accurate sex diagnostic assay by (1) including an internal PCR control, (2) following a single-step DNA extraction procedure and (3) optimising the PCR conditions to simultaneously amplify male-specific and control bands from the crude leaf extract. This diagnostic approach would be of great commercial significance to papaya growers as well as to seed companies and plant nurseries for early identification of female seedlings of dioecious species. In principle, this experimental design could be easily applied to molecular analysis of any agriculturally important trait for which specific DNA probes could be identified and hence opens new avenues of research in the field of genetic diagnostics of plants.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
