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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #342186
Title: Candidate SSR tags for fruit and seed traits of Theobroma cacao L. in the International Cocoa Genebank Trinidad

Author
item MOTILAL, LAMBERT - University Of The West Indies
item Zhang, Dapeng
item Mischke, Barbara
item Meinhardt, Lyndel
item UMAHARAN, PATHMANATHAN - University Of The West Indies

Submitted to: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Cocoa Research
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2018
Publication Date: 7/5/2018
Citation: Motilal, L., Zhang, D., Mischke, B.S., Meinhardt, L.W., Umaharan, P. 2018. Candidate SSR tags for fruit and seed traits of Theobroma cacao L. in the International Cocoa Genebank Trinidad. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Cocoa Research. p.13-17.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Increasing yield is a prominent feature of crop breeding programmes including the economically important cacao (Theobroma cacao L.). As a tropical tree crop, the time and acreage needed for selection of improved varieties are limiting factors. Selection at an early seedling stage in a marker assisted selection programme is desirable. Candidate molecular microsatellite markers were identified under an association mapping approach for five fruit (fruit mass, husk mass, fruit length, fruit girth and fruit volume) and three seed (length, width and size of fresh peeled seeds) traits. Eleven microsatellite markers (mTcCIR 19, 30, 40, 43, 57, 60, 126, 157, 184, 225 and 275) were consistently obtained under general and mixed linear models and explained between 5.82 – 12.87% of the observed variation. Markers mTcCIR60, mTcCIR126 and mTcCIR184 were tagged to various traits and were most significantly associated with the reproductive traits. The adoption of these markers is recommended to the international cacao community.