DNA‐based assays to distinguish date palm (Arecaceae) gender

Abstract

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is one of the oldest cultivated trees and is critical to the development of arid land. The date palm is a dioecious monocot with separate male and female trees. This presents a challenge in development as it is impossible to distinguish trees until they flower approximately five to eight years after planting. We have developed PCR-based assays capable of sex differentiation in multiple date palm cultivars. The primers are designed across gender-specific polymorphisms and demonstrated greater than 90% accuracy in distinguishing date palm gender across multiple varieties. These results indicate that the primers should be helpful in rapidly distinguishing date palm gender from the earliest stages that DNA can safely be collected. This is a vast savings in time over present approaches.