Association mapping of cane weight and tillers per plant in sugarcane

Abstract

Identification of agronomic traits tightly linked to molecular markers is a major footstep to implement the marker assisted selection in breeding programmes. Sugarcane is the major cash crop and the source of more than 2/3 of world sugar production. In this study, 20 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to find the linkage for sugarcane yield components; cane weight and tillers per plant using 28 sugarcane genotypes. In total, 114 alleles were found, ranging from 2–13 alleles per locus with a mean value of 5.7. High levels of polymorphism were detected through SSR amplifications among all genotypes studied. SSR markers, CEMB-14A and CEMB-14B, were found linked (P < 0.01) to tillers per plant while CEMB-5A, CEMB-5C and CEMB-7B were found associated (P < 0.05) with cane weight. Identification of new and novel SSR markers in sugarcane have potential use in genetic diversity studies, DNA fingerprinting, DNA markers-based screening of germplasm for breeding programme and also in determination of true hybrids in the offspring.