Regeneration and molecular characterization of intergeneric somatic hybrids between Citrus reticulata and Poncirus trifoliata

Citrus exocortis viroid (CEV) is widespread in citrus production areas where trifoliate orange [Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf.] is used as rootstock. Citrus reticulata Blanco cv. Red tangerine, a different rootstock, is tolerant to CEV. Embryogenic protoplasts of C. reticulata cv. Red tangerine were electrically fused with mesophyll protoplasts from P. trifoliata, and five embryoids were regenerated after 40 days of culture. The embryoids were cut into several pieces and subcultured on shoot induction medium. After 5 months and several subcultures, shoots initially regenerated. The plants grew vigorously with well-developed root systems and exhibited the trifoliate leaf character of P. trifoliata. Chromosome counts on four randomly selected root tips revealed them to be tetraploids (2n=4x=36). RAPD analysis of four randomly selected plants verified their hybridity. This hybridity was further confirmed by AFLP analysis using four primer pairs, from which a total of 65 specific bands were detected. Cytoplasmic genome analysis using universal primers revealed that their chloroplast DNA banding pattern was identical to that of trifoliate orange, while the banding pattern of mitochondrial DNA was identical to that of Red tangerine. The potential of this somatic hybrid as a means to control tree size and provide multi-resistance is discussed.