Potential of RAPD markers for identification of fruit types of Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. (jackfruit)

Abstract

Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. (jackfruit) of the family Moraceae is considered to be a native species of the rainforests of the western Ghats of India and the Malaysian Archipelago. It has been introduced to South and South East Asian countries and now is widely spread in tropical Asia, including Sri Lanka, as an important fruit and timber tree. It produces two fruit types, which can only be differentiated when ripened syncarps are dissected. Of the two types, the hard-fleshed fruit type (varaka) is favoured over the soft-fleshed fruit type (vella). An experiment was carried out to identify Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers to differentiate the two fruit types of A. heterophyllus. Results of the RAPD analysis revealed that the two fruit types may be distinguished from one RAPD product, namely OPB-01-1.0. Development of Sequence Characterized Amplified Region SCAR markers for easy and effective identification is suggested.