Wen Xiao-peng

Genetic diversity of male sterile and low fertility germplasm of Citrus revealed using SSR markers

Genetic diversity of 43 accessions of male sterile, low fertile, containing sterile cytoplasm and 13 fertile ones in Citrus were assessed using simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs). Thirty- five polymorphic alleles, with an average of 4.4 per primer, were generated from eight primers. Cluster analysis was performed via un-weighted pair group method analysis (UPGMA) method using the NTSYS-pc version 2.10. The results showed that three groups could be obtained from those accessions. The cultivars of mandarin were classified into group 1; those of sweet orange, grapefruit, ponkan or tangor into group 2; Microcitrus with male sterile cytoplasm into group 3. Cluster analysis also revealed that satsuma mandarin had closer relatedness with Bendiguangju mandarin than with Zaoju, Manju, Bendizao tangerine. Genetic diversity of male sterile and low fertile Citrus will provide useful information for further collection, preservation and utilization.