Nuclear and cytoplasmic characterization of citrus asymmetric somatic hybrids by means of ISSR-PCR and CAPs

In order to obtain new somatic hybrids for genetic improvement of mandarin, several protoplast fusion experiments have been carried out. Isozyme banding pattern analysis and flow cytometry were used for early nuclear characterization. DNA of the hybrids was then extracted and subjected to ISSR-PCR using different primers anchored at 5’ and 3’ends. Successively, for cytoplasmic characterization of the hybrids, CAPs using universal mtDNA and cpDNA primers were performed. Our results showed that these new genotypes are definitely cybrids resulting asymmetric hybrids, in which the nucleus is inherited from the leaf parent and mitochondria from callus parent.