Identification of zygotic and nucellar seedlings in citrus interspecific crosses by inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers

Interspecific sexual hybridizations were conducted between Yashar [(Citrus changsha) x (C. paradisi x C. reticulata)] as maternal parent and five different genotypes as parental including Page [(C. Clementina) x (C. paradisi x C. reticulata)], Changsha (C. changsha), Ponkan (C. reticulata), Marrs (C. sinensis) and Hamlin (C. sinensis) in an effort to generate hybrid populations for scion breeding. A total of 227 plantlets were generated and screened to distinguish zygotic from nucellar seedlings. Parents and progenies were exposed to inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) using different primers. Among 227 tested individuals, 67 hybrid and 160 nucellar seedlings were recognized. The results indicate that ISSR analyses are very efficient and reliable for identification of hybrids in polyembryonic citrus cultivars.