Agronomic Traits and Genetic Fidelity of Four Cocoa Clones Derived from Somatic Embryogenesis Culture

Gibson, Entuni and Hollena, Nori and Rebicca, Edward and Ahmad Kamil, Bin Mohd Jaafar (2022) Agronomic Traits and Genetic Fidelity of Four Cocoa Clones Derived from Somatic Embryogenesis Culture. Trends in Sciences, 19 (15). pp. 1-12. ISSN 2774-0226 (Online)

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Abstract

Morphological and genetic characterization of MCBC1, PBC230, KKM22 and KKM4 cocoa clones derived from staminode and immature zygotic embryo culture were compared with those conventionally grafted. Somatic embryogenesis culture successfully produced true-to-type progenies of elite cocoa clones of MCBC1, PBC230, KKM22 and KKM4 (from staminode culture). Phenotype variations (p < 0.05) were observed only in KKM4 clone from immature zygotic embryo culture which exhibited lower quantities in the fresh pod weight, number of flat beans per pod, seed length, seed width and individual seed weight. The genetic stability of the cultured clones was tested using fragment analysis with 12 SSR primers to validate these results. Eleven of these SSR primers detected mutations only in the allelic profiles of KKM4 clone from immature zygotic embryo. These results validated those variations in KKM4 clones of immature zygotic embryo culture were due to interactions between genotypic and explant types. Unfortunately, these variations were negative attributes to cocoa productivity. Thus, it is suggested that successful production of true-to-type KKM4 cocoa clone should consider other means of propagation including modification of the culture conditions.

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