DNA-BASED ASSAYS TO DISTINGUISH DATE PALM (ARECACEAE) GENDER

Premise of the study: Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is one of the oldest cultivated trees and is critical to the development of arid land. The date palm is a dioecious monocot with separate male and female trees. This presents a challenge in development as it is impossible to distinguish trees until they flower approximately five to eight years after planting. Methods and Results: We have developed PCR-based assays capable of sex differentiation in multiple date palm cultivars. The primers are designed across gender-specific polymorphisms and demonstrated greater than 90% accuracy in distinguishing date palm gender across multiple varieties. Conclusions: These results indicate that the primers should be helpful in rapidly distinguishing date palm gender from the earliest stages that DNA can safely be collected. This is a vast savings in time over present approaches.