Evaluation of two types of SCAR markers to determine sex in papaya variety Maradol

Abstract

Papaya, Carica papaya L.., presents female, male and hermaphrodite plants, according to the sex of the flowers they produce, the latter being the most suitable for generating elongated and small internal cavity fruits, morphology that confers greater damage resistance during post-harvest and transport. The sex of Papaya plants can be determined at the beginning of the flowering stage, which occurs 3-4 months after field transplant because to have a plantation with a majority of hermaphrodite plants require 3 to 4 plants by hole later and discard those with ginoica and androic flowers. The use of molecular markers for sex determination is an alternative that contributes to crop breeding, but also reduce production costs. In this paper, the evaluation of a multiplex PCR was made with two SCAR primers (T1 and W11) for sex identification in Maradol papaya plants. DNA was extracted from young leaves of plants in the field, chosen according to sex, in the Unidad de Biotecnología Vegetal of CENIAP, Aragua, Venezuela. In this methodology, two fragments of 1300 and 800 bp for hermaphrodite plants and one 1300 bp fragment was amplified for female. Thus, these markers for Papaya Maradol in our laboratory conditions with a 100% correspondence with the floral morphology were validated.