Farmers can harness the full potential of any hybrid only when they get genetically pure seeds of the hybrid. Hence, ensuring the genetic purity of certifi ed seeds of brinjal hybrids is mandatory in India, which is done through fi eld grow out test (GOT) based on the morphological characters of plants grown to maturity. GOT being land and labour intensive, time consuming and infl uenced by the environment, there is a need to identify rapid and reliable alternatives like DNA based assays. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to identify the SSR markers that could be used to test the hybrid purity of two commercial brinjal hybrids (viz., Arka Anand and Brinjal Asha) and to optimize the minimum sample size that can be used for purity assessment of the brinjal hybrids. Among 120 SSR markers studied, two markers were found to be suitable for testing the purity of these hybrids. The analysis of plant-to-plant variation within the parental lines of all the hybrids, using the identifi ed hybrid specifi c markers, showed highly homogenous SSR profi le, which further indicated the scope of application of these markers in maintenance and purity testing of hybrids and parental lines. These two co-dominant markers can be used as referral markers for unambiguous identifi cation, seed purity testing and protection of the hybrids.
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