Abstract
Identification of zygotic and nucellar seedlings of Harumanis mango by morphological approach is impossible or hard to be performed. Therefore, this research were to identify zygotic or nucellar seedlings from Harumanis mango polyembryonic seeds through simple sequence repeat (SSR) molecular markers in relation with germination sequence and vigour of seedlings for source of true-to-type cutting material. The results showed that there were 3 seedlings per seed on average. The result from the molecular analysis of 136 seedlings (45 seeds) showed four zygotic seedlings in seeds 1, 15, 29 and 43 representing 8.9% of seeds evaluated. Most of the zygotic seedlings were found towards the end of germination sequence except for seed number 15 and the rest were considered as nucellar seedlings. Based on the fitted logistic regression, the predicted sequence to obtain 90% nucellar seedlings is 5.47. This means that, the germination sequence of less than 6 has 90% chance of getting nucellar seedlings compared to zygotic seedlings. Morphological characters such as number of leaves, stem diameter and leaf area could also be used as references with germination sequence. The results showed that there were significant (p<0.01) relationships between germination sequence and all the growth variables. All growth variables were negatively correlated with germination sequence. This suggested that in order to have 90% chances of getting nucellar seedling (germination sequence below 6), the seedling needs to exhibit several morphology characters; big stem girth, tall plant, high leaf number and large leaf area. Therefore, choosing vigour seedling will increase chances of getting nucellar seedlings, which can be used as cutting source for true-to-type planting material or for breeding purposes. Key words: Harumanis, molecular, morphology, nucellar, SSR markers, zygotic.
Highlights
Harumanis mango (Mangifera indica) is a mango variety that is economically important and classified as one of the sought-after mango variety in Malaysia (Farook et al, 2013)
The analysis of 136 seedlings which were derived from 45 seeds using microsatellite markers showed a total of four zygotic seedlings and they were identified in seeds 1, 15, 29 and 43 representing 8.9% of seeds evaluated (Table 2)
Most of the zygotic seedlings were found towards the end of germination sequence except for seed number 15
Summary
Harumanis mango (Mangifera indica) is a mango variety that is economically important and classified as one of the sought-after mango variety in Malaysia (Farook et al, 2013). As recorded in 2019, there was about 6,373 ha of mango cultivation in Malaysia with 15,766 metric tons production (Department of Agriculture, 2019) This valuable crop is generally propagated by the means of grafting rather than via seedlings to ensure true-to-type planting material (Ahmad Hafiz et al, et al, 2020). This method of propagation is laborious, costly, requires skilled worker, time-consuming and dependable on availability of seeds for rootstock; which explain the deficit in supply of Harumanis mango planting materials in Malaysia. An alternative method of mass production of true-to- type mango planting material is via cutting, which is reported to be more cost effective, efficient and uniform planting materials (Deependra et al, 2018). This method is hindered in mango due to the polyembryonic attributes of the mango seed
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