A male-specific SCAR DNA marker and sex ratio of seedlings in salak ( Salacca zalacca var. zalacca )

A male-specific SCAR DNA marker was developed using a RAPD DNA marker specific for male plants of Salacca zalacca var. zalacca (salak palm). The marker is 1579 bp long and has a GC content of 38.5 %. Its sequence contains 1 or 2 open reading frames, indicating the marker is probably a coding region. No highly similar sequences were found in a search of the GenBank database. Sexes were identified using the SCAR DNA marker for three kinds of seedlings grouped by the number of seeds per fruit (1, 2 or 3). The sex ratio of female to male did not differ significantly from 1:1 for the three kinds of seedlings, implying that the number of seeds per fruit is not a reliable index to identify the sex of a seedling.