Production and molecular characterization of Citrus intergeneric somatic hybrids between red tangerine and citrange

Somatic hybridization has been an effective and successful technique for plant improvement. In this paper, embryogenic callus protoplasts of red tangerine (Citrus reticulata Blanco) were electrically fused with mesophyll protoplasts from citrange (C. sinensis × P. trifoliata, a Chinese local strain) in an effort to produce complementary tetraploid citrus rootstocks. Regenerated embryoids grew slowly and were vulnerable to browning. Twelve plants were finally regenerated, rooted and transplanted into a greenhouse. Root-tip chromosome counting of five randomly-selected plants revealed most cells were tetraploid (2n = 4x = 36), but aneuploid cells also existed. Flow cytometry analysis further confirmed their tetraploid nature. Nuclear simple sequence repeat (SSR) analysis verified their hybridity. Further mitochondrial genome analysis by restriction fragment length polymorphism and cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence revealed their mtDNA banding pattern was identical to that of red tangerine, the embryogenic callus parent; while their chloroplast DNA inheritance was random as revealed by chloroplast SSR analysis, in addition to cpDNA co-existence detected in one plant. Cytological and molecular analysis indicated that somatic hybrid plants between red tangerine and citrange had been successfully obtained.