Production of two mandarin × trifoliate orange hybrid populations via embryo rescue with verification by SSR analysis

Intergeneric sexual hybridizations were conducted between two genera of Rutaceae, with Satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc) and Red tangerine (C. reticulata Blanco) as maternal parents, and Poncirus trifoliata (L.) Raf as the paternal parent, in an effort to generate hybrid populations for both molecular mapping and rootstock breeding. Embryo rescue is important for citrus sexual breeding because polyembryony can interfere with hybrid embryo recovery. Immature embryos of 80, 85, 90 days after pollination (DAP) from the Satsuma mandarin (S) × trifoliate orange (P) cross, 80 and 85 DAP from the Red tangerine (R) × trifoliate orange (P) cross, were cultured on MG1.0 medium consisting of MT basal medium supplemented with 1.0 mg l⁻¹ GA₃ and 4% sucrose. The results showed that 80 DAP was the optimal time for embryo rescue of the tested crosses, as evidenced by embryos at this stage exhibiting high germination rates, 37.3% for S × P and 51.3% for R × P. Among the eight tested media, MT medium supplemented with 0.5 mg l⁻¹ GA₃ was the best one for Satsuma mandarin, and MT plus 1.0 mg l⁻¹ GA₃ for Red tangerine. A total of 85 plants were obtained from S × P, and 340 from R × P. Out of them, 44 progenies from S × P and 111 from R × P were sufficiently confirmed to be hybrids by morphological characterization and SSR analysis. In addition, two hybrid callus lines were obtained from S × P and R × P respectively.