Use of Molecular Markers in the Management of Citrus Germplasm Resources

Abstract

New potential citrus germplasm accessions may be received as seed rather than budwood, thereby reducing phytosanitary risks. However, trueness-to-type may be an issue with seed materials because many varieties produce both apomictic (nucellar) and sexual (zygotic) embryos and most citrus is fairly heterozygous. To identify nucellar seedlings of polyembryonic types and to retain these as representing the type, we screened 1340 seedlings from 88 seed sources for markers amplified with two inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers. Sixteen seed sources produced no seedlings classified as being of nucellar origin. Among the remaining seed sources, seedlings classed as nucellar were identified for potential addition to the collection. In 37 accessions, both nucellar and zygotic seedlings were detected, and in some cases both types were retained. Inclusion of established accessions of the same cultivar group in the analysis allowed an initial assessment of similarity to existing accessions. This technique improved the efficiency of acquiring new germplasm of polyembryonic types by seed. The method identifies those seed sources that produce few or no nucellar seedlings, but it is not useful for determining which seedlings of monoembryonic types should be retained in collections.