Using precocious trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata [L.] Raf.) to establish a short juvenile transformation platform for citrus

The precocious trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata L.] Raf.), an early flowering mutant of P. trifoliata, has a short juvenile phase of about 14 months, significantly shorter than other citrus. In this report, using the stems of precocious trifoliate orange seedlings as explants, an improved protocol mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens was developed to evaluate regeneration and transformation frequency. The transformed plants continued to reveal the precocious trait of non-transgenic mature precocious trifoliate orange, and as such could prove to be an efficient system for the verification of gene function in the fruits/flower via genetic transformation in woody plants.