Morphological and Isozymic Analysis of Open-Pollinated Citrus Rootstock Populations

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Abstract
Citrus rootstocks are commercially propagated from open-pollinated seed, which usually produces uniform populations of nucellar seedlings. Morphological traits are used to identify any off-type seedlings. In this study, seedling populations of 15 rootstock cultivars were evaluated morphologically and for their isozyme genotypes at 7 loci. The populations varied in degree of polyembryony and in percentages of plants that were morphologically or isozymically variable. Two cultivar populations contained only typical nucellar seedlings. Four populations contained a few morphologically variant plants that had isozyme genotypes typical for the cultivar. The remaining rootstock populations contained plants that varied in morphology, isozyme profile, or both. Isozymes were useful for the detection of zygotic seedlings that were not detected by their morphology. The zygotic seedlings, with one exception, appeared to arise from self-pollination.

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