Diversity in Mohachao Narel, a Sweet Endosperm Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Population from Maharashtra, India

Abstract

‘Mohachao Narel’, a coconut variant characterized by sweet and soft kernel with less fibre content, has been reported from Guhaghar taluk of Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra State in India. Farmers of the area get a premium price for sweet endosperm nuts and the sweet kernel is mainly consumed directly. A total of 28 mother palms possessing nuts with sweet kernel have been identified in these areas. The number of nuts with sweet endosperm per bunch varies from 10 to 77 percent in these 28 palms. In this study, 12 palm characters including vegetative as well as reproductive characters, 14 fruit characters and 14 SSR loci, distributed uniformly throughout the coconut genome, were used to assess the genetic diversity of these palms. Palms exhibited 18 and 33 % coefficient of variation in vegetative and reproductive characters respectively. In the case of vegetative characters, highest variation was detected in plant height followed by number of leaf scars per meter. Among the reproductive characters, number of female flowers per bunch possessed highest amount of variation followed by number of nuts per bunch. Among the 14 fruit characters studied, high variation was observed in the weight of embryo, husk weight, copra weight and oil content. The 14 SSR loci detected a total of 35 alleles with an average of 2.5 alleles per primer. All the primers were 100 % polymorphic. The analysis microsatellite revealed that palms of sweet kernel type had only 45 % similarity among them indicating the existence of a high level of genetic diversity between the palms. The results can pave the way for devising strategies for conservation and management of the sweet kernel coconut population and their use in future breeding programmes.