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. 2025 Aug 14;47(8):656.
doi: 10.3390/cimb47080656.

Molecular Characterization of Citrus Accessions Grown for Pre-Breeding Purposes

Israel Felipe Gonçalves Soares  1 , Felipe Cruz Paula  2 , Conceição de Maria Batista Oliveira  3 , José Dias de Souza Neto  4 , Talles de Oliveira Santos  2 , Rafael Nunes de Almeida  5 , Ana Paula Candido Gabriel Berilli  4 , Sávio da Silva Berilli  4 , Taís Cristina Bastos Soares  6 , Jardel Oliveira Santos  7 , Alexandre Cristiano Santos Júnior  4 , Monique Moreira Moulin  4
Affiliations

Molecular Characterization of Citrus Accessions Grown for Pre-Breeding Purposes

Israel Felipe Gonçalves Soares et al. Curr Issues Mol Biol. .

Abstract

The objective of this work was to analyse the genetic diversity of a population of Citrus spp. in the south of the State of Espírito Santo, Brazil, for pre-breeding studies. For that, a total of sixty genotypes were analysed, including ten citrus varieties from four species of the Citrus genus. The methodology involved DNA extraction, amplification via polymerase chain reaction, and the use of a set of 16 Simple Sequence Repeat markers. These markers identified 42 alleles, with a variation of one to four alleles per locus, an average heterozygosity value of 0.53, and an average polymorphic information content of up to 0.29 per species. After the analysis, a dissimilarity matrix was generated using Jaccard distance and a dendrogram, revealing the formation of two groups: Group I, comprising Citrus sinensis varieties, and Group II, comprising varieties of Citrus latifolia, Citrus aurantifolia, and Citrus reticulata. Our study demonstrated that the combination of these markers allowed for the differentiation of genotypes within the collection. The results obtained are valuable for the future management of the collection and the efficient use of genetic diversity estimation in Citrus spp.

Keywords: Citrus spp.; SSR marker; citrus germplasm; genetic variability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Citrus varieties from the IFES germplasm collection. (A) C. sinensis (Laranja Pêra Mel); (B) C. sinensis (Laranja Sanguínea); (C) C. reticulata (Tangerina Ponkan); (D) C. sinensis (Laranja Natal Folha Murcha); (E) C. sinensis (Laranja Bahia); (F) C. sinensis (Laranja Lima); (G) C. sinensis (Laranja Seleta Comum); (H) C. sinensis (Laranja Pêra Rio); (I) C. latifolia (Limão Taiti) and; (J) C. aurantifolia (Limão Branco).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Heatmap with bidimensional hierarchical clustering of the Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) analysis of 16 SSR primers in four Citrus species to generate SSR profiles in 60 genotypes. X-axis: Citrus species. Y-axis: SSRs markers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Circular dendrogram showing the genetic similarity between Citrus ssp. with Jaccard’s distance using the UPGMA method with a cophenetic correlation of 0.96. The numbers I and II indicate the formation of the clusters. The species are represented by A—C. sinensis, B—C. reticulata, C—C. latifolia, and D—C. aurantifolia. The citrus varieties were categorised by colour: sky blue (Laranja Lima); orange (Laranja Seleta Comum); pink (Laranja Sanguínea); dark blue (Laranja Pêra Rio); yellow (Laranja Natal Folha Murcha); light blue (Laranja Bahia); green (Laranja Pêra Mel); brown (Tangerina Ponkan); lilac (Limão Taiti), and red (Limão Branco).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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