Occurrence of spontaneous polyploids in Citrus

Abstract

Seedlings recovered from underdeveloped seeds of different commercial cultivars of Citrus were studied for their ploidy level. Cytological examination revealed that maximum triploid plants were found in lime Kaghzi (15.5%) followed by grapefruit Foster, mandarin Kinnow, sweet orange Musambi and mandarin Feutrell’s Early (7.3%). Lime also produced the highest percentage of tetraploids (9.1%) followed by mandarin Kinnow and grapefruit Foster, while the minimum was found in mandarin Feutrell’s Early. The polyploids were transplanted in pots and after hardening they were grown in the greenhouse for further morphological and genetic assays.