Posted on 01/26/2011 5:47:23 AM PST by Red Badger
Citrus species are among the most important fruit trees in the world. Citrus has a long history of cultivation, often thought to be more than 4,000 years. Until now, however, the exact genetic origins of cultivated citrus such as sweet orange (Citrus sinensis), lemon (C. limon), and grapefruit (C. paradisi) have been a mystery. A team of researchers from China has published a study in the Journal of the American Society of Horticultural Science that provides genetic evidence of the origins of a variety species of today's cultivated citrus.
The research team, led by Zhiqin Zhou from Southwest University, analyzed amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprints -- a technique that has been used successfully to assess the origin of potato cultivars -- with chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) sequence analysis and nuclear internal transcribed spacer. "The combination of nuclear DNA and cpDNA data allowed us to identify the exact genetic origin of the cultivated citrus," they wrote.
The results proved that bergamot and lemon were derived from citron and sour orange, and grapefruit was a hybrid that originated from a cross between pummelo and sweet orange. The data demonstrated that sweet orange and sour orange were hybrids of mandarin and pummelo, while rough lemon was a cross between citron and mandarin. The evidence also confirmed that bergamot was a hybrid of sour orange and citron, with sour orange as the maternal parent and citron as the paternal parent.
"Our molecular evidence presented more convincing data than all other previous studies in supporting the origin of lime," noted the scientists. The data confirmed a species of Papeda to be the female parent and C. medica as the male for mexican lime.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
I’d like to know what was the hybridizing technique. Grafting?
And my favorite meyer lemon.
Probably direct stamen to pistil cross pollination............
Grafting doesn’t mix genes AFAIK. You have to pollinate flowers of one with pollen from the other.
Hey don’t you think it’s a little early in the morning to be talking about cross pollination.........
Don’t bees do that?
Correct.
In fact, you can grow multiple types of citrus fruit on one tree..............
Only if there are large numbers of both types of fruit near each other.
But then the seeds of the cross pollinated fruit have to be planted, cultivated and matured to fruit bearing age, approximately 7-10 years, so wild cross pollination is seldom “brought to fruition”..........
So in other words, Noah didn’t have to take all varieties of citrus with him on the ark. He only needed 2, one male, one female.
And that’s why birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love
I consider evolution to be a fairy tale. The concept of “kind” really has great value in explaining how the diversity of life arose after the flood.
This really isn’t “evolution” in the classic sense, it’s plant breeding at it’s finest................
I don’t think he took any plants or cultivars other than what was necessary to feed themselves..............
I got interested in this whole topic about the time the orange evolved into the Screwdriver.
Are you trying to tell me that citrus wasn’t invented in Anderson’s grocery store in my little home town?
Sorry, ‘bout that chief....................
...and the lime evolved into a Margarita...........
Birds do it, bees do it,
even monkeys in the trees do it...
They do, but with a little less certainty of which pollen goes into which flower than if a person does it. Bees typically go from flower to flower on the same tree, rather than back and forth from tree to tree every time. So they are much less efficient at cross pollination than is a person bent on hybridizing a particular set of strains.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.