The majority of Citrus species and some related genera in this family produce nucellar embryos. Nucellar seedlings are similar to maternal parents. The existence of such embryos next to the embryo from fertilization leads to the polyembryony phenomenon which during that, two or few embryos are developed in one seed simultaneously. The nucellar embryo is a big obstacle in citrus breeding, however, the aim of producing genetic uniformity in stock production is valuable. In this study, for distinguishing between seedlings resulting from fertility and nucellar seedlings, a leaf sample was prepared from maternal plants and seedlings resulted from seeds of 11 citrus cultivars. After DNA extraction from samples, PCR was performed using 8 microsatellite primer pairs. The results indicated that 8 primer pairs were polymorphic for nucellar or zygotic traits of seedlings in 9 cultivars. The number of all alleles in the population was 45, and the range of alleles amplified by the primers was 3-11 with an average of 5.75. 35 alleles were polymorphic for nucellar or zygotic traits. Among polymorphic primers, TAA41 primer and TAA1 and TAA27 primers produced the highest number of alleles (11) and the lowest number of alleles (3) in studied cultivars, respectively. Polymorphic primers of this research especially TAA45 and TAA33 can be used to identify nucellar and zygotic seedlings of all citrus genotypes, cultivars, and hybrids in different breeding programs.
Hallajian M T, Dabbagh K, Kordrostami M, Ghasemi-Soloklui A A. Identification of Nucellar and Zygotic Seedlings in Some Citrus Species Using SSR Technique. IJHST 2024; 25 (1) :25-46 URL: http://journal-irshs.ir/article-1-665-en.html