Identification of a STMS marker for sucrose content in sugarcane (Saccharum spp.)

Abstract

In order to identify molecular markers for sugar content in sugarcane, a mapping population involving the high sucrose parent (CoC 671) and a low sucrose parent (BC 6) was developed and phenotyped for juice quality through evaluating in a replicated field experiment. Statistically superior and inferior progeny for sucrose content were identified, from which six high and low sucrose progeny were randomly selected to constitute high and low sucrose bulks for progeny survey. Parental polymorphism survey with 42 sugarcane specific STMS primers generated eight polymorphic markers (NKS 5139, NKS 9279, NKS 30379, NKS 31336, NKS 45180, 330 and NKS 46220, 345) with six primers. Genotyping with these primers in the selected high and low sucrose progeny led to the identification of two markers viz., NKS45180 and NKS46220 specific to the high sucrose bulk and in the individual progeny that constituted the bulk. Validation of these two markers on a set of ten high sucrose and ten low sucrose commercial clones with different genetic backgrounds showed that the marker NKS45180 was specific to high sucrose clones and absent in all the low sucrose types. This marker can be used in the selection of high sucrose clones and holds promise in marker assisted selection and marker assisted backcrossing to identify sucrose rich clones in the early stages of selection.