Development of a SCAR Marker Linked to Male Fertility Traits in 'Jinkyool' (Citrus sunki)

Abstract

In Citrus, an F1 segregation population of 150 plants was constructed from a cross between ‘Kiyomi’ (C. unshiu × C. sinensis) carrying the male sterility trait and ‘Jinkyool’ (C. sunki). Sequence-related amplification polymorphism (SRAP) combined with bulked segregant analysis was used to develop markers linked to male fertility. In the F1 population, 66 out of 150 seedlings had aborted anthers and the ratio of male sterile plants to fertile plants in the progenies matched the expected Mendelian segregation ratio of 1:1 (χ2 =2.16 at p=0.05). From the profiling of the 197 SRAP primer sets, three SRAP primer sets (F4/R27, F39/R60, and F15/R37) that were closely linked to the target trait were identified and successfully converted into a sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) marker for selection of male fertility in citrus. The SCAR marker, using the pMS 33U/pMS 1462L primer set specifically, produced a single 1.4-Kb fragment that was linked to male fertility. Our results suggested that this SCAR marker can be useful for marker-assisted selection of male sterile individuals in breeding F1 progenies in Citrus.