Female sex associated RAPD marker in pointed gourd (trichosanthes dioica Roxb.)

Abstract

Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.), a perennial vegetable crop. The present investigation was carried out to understand the molecular basis of differentiation between male and female genotypes based on RAPD markers. The plant material for the study comprised 16 female and 4 male accessions of pointed gourd. Leaves were harvested and immediately stored at – 80C until total genomic DNA was extracted, using the protocol of DNA easy plant mini-kit (QIAGEN). The UV/VIS spectrophotometer (Lambda Bio20, Perkin Elmer, USA). Bulk samples were prepared by pooling equal amount of genomic DNA purified from 10 individuals of each acces-sion and aliquot from these combined samples was used for PCR reaction. The limits of male and female genotypes available in this study, the RAPD band OPC07567 appeared to be the female sex-related DNA marker in T. dioica. Determining genes would allow to clone the gene(s) involved in this process. APD marker associated with females, that is not present in males of T. dioica. The importance of this finding is the early assessment of gender in T. dioica, as well as the possible implication in understanding the molecular basis of sex determination in this dioecious species.