Marker-assisted breeding in coconut for productivity and major industrial traits

Coconut remains an important crop of the Philippines as it contributes an average of 5.97% to the gross value added (GVA) and 1.14% gross domestic product (GDP) annually. As of 2014, the infestation of the coconut scale insect contributed 1.4% decline in production in the coconut industry. With the long-standing problem of old senile, less productive coconut palms in the major coconut growing areas, there is a need for a new, resilient, and more productive coconut varieties and hybrids that are accessible, steady source of planting materials or seed nuts for the coconut farmers. The authors report the initial results of a five-year collaborative effort to breed coconut varieties with outstanding productivity and major industrial traits with the aid of molecular marker technology, and establish seed nurseries for future dissemination of seed nuts to major coconut growing areas in the Philippines. Preliminary evaluation based on nut yield, size and shape 38 outstanding individual 'Tall' coconut palms were selected from a total of 1,731 evaluated in four sites in Batangas and Quezon. These palms will form the breeding population for the development of 'Tall' x 'Tall' and 'Dwarf' x 'Tall' coconut hybrids/varieties in succeeding years. Pollen were collected from these palms and processed for hybridization activities. Nuts from the selected palms were harvested and seed nut nursery was established at the Institute of Plant Breeding, UPLB [University of the Philippines Los Banos] to house the 3014 seedlings. Simultaneously, SSR marker screening identified 29 polymorphic markers out of the 48 screened on bulked 'Tall' and 'Dwarf' coconut populations sampled from the germplasm collections of National Coconut Research Center, and PCA [Philippine Coconut Authority]-Zamboanga Research Center. Essential activities like coordination with farmer cooperators, discussion among collaborating agencies, and capacity-building like trainings on coconut pollen collection and processing, pollination, and characterization were also conducted.