Presently, selection of hybrid seedlings in coconut nurseries
relies on morphological markers, some of them being days taken for
germination, vigour of seedlings in terms of leaf production, higher
collar girth during a specific duration and petiole colour. The selection
of hybrids by petiole colour (Bourdeix, 1988) has limitations as
it is reliable only if progenitors homozygous for yellow, red or green
petiole are used. Furthermore, many of the varieties and hybrids are
phenotypically less distinct at early stages making morphological selection and evaluation more difficult. Identification of genuine
D
×
T (Dwarf
×
Tall) hybrids in the nursery stage is still more
difficult task if the female parent is a green dwarf in which case,
petiole colour is not useful for selection of hybrids. Though widely
adopted and practiced, purity assessments based on morphology is
often affected by environment, besides the higher requirement of
time and resources. Identification of molecular markers for distinguishing
plant-type character, therefore, is imperative for isolating
true-to-type high-yielding tall and hybrid lines in the early stage
of coconut breeding programmes which would be helpful in the
commercial hybrid seedling production activities in coconut. Differentiation
of dwarf, tall and hybrid types in the nursery based
on combined application of morphological and molecular markers