DNA fingerprinting of Date palm (<i>Phoenix dactilifera</i> L.) gender using random amplified polymorphic DNA – PCR technique

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a flowering plant that is cultivated for its edible sweet fruit called dates. It is a dioecious plant species with unisexual flowers. In date farming, there is the need of a sufficiently large number of productive female trees with only a minimal number of male trees. However, due to phenotypic difficulties in sex determination before flowering, which takes 4 to 5 years, there is the need for an alternative genetic approach to curtail this problem. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the potential of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique as a genetic tool in sex determination of this plant at an early stage. Date palm seeds were planted until the young and tender leaves were grown. DNA was extracted from the leaves using Zymo DNA Mini Kit. Six different RAPD primers were used for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and the resulting PCR products were resolved on 2% agarose gel for 2 hours. The banding pattern on the gel was used to compare the results of the samples against a male positive control. The findings of this study showed clearly the differences in banding patterns between male and female seedlings. Hence, the use of RAPD as a routine genetic tool in fingerprinting date palm would aid in planting appropriate female date palm plants thereby reducing time wastage and increase in the return on investment.