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VARIATION WITHIN KINNOW (CITRUS RETICULATA) AND ROUGH LEMON (CITRUS JAMBHERI)

NAFEES ALTAF* AND ABDUL REHMAN KHAN

Abstract: Citrus is number one in area and production of fruits in Pakistan. Punjab is the major Citrus fruit producing province. Kinnow mandarin (Citrus reticulata) is the dominant scion variety grafted on locally well adapted rootstock rough lemon (C. jambheri). The seed embryos from randomly collected fruits from all over Punjab province were studied in invitro culture and 24 different embryo seedlings shapes were found. In another experiment 10534 seeds from randomly collected fruits were cultured, among which 65% were found to be mono embryonic, 22% were bi-embryonic and 13% were poly embryonic. The explants from poly embryonic seedlings were responsive in culture while the explants from mono embryonic seedlings had weak culture response. The variation in rough lemon rootstock was also studied. It was observed that in one-year-old population of 1512 rough lemon plants, 59% were just normal plants, 18% had large spines, 6% had straight stem, 5% were broad leaved and 12% had dense foliage. It was further observed that among the 3 year old population of 318 plants, 19% individuals had broad leaves, 48 % were with dense foliage, 6% had large spines, 24% possessed straight stems and only 3% plants had leaf abscission character. Both the cultivars have intra varietal variation.

Nuclear Institute for Agriculture & Biology, P.O Box: 128, Faisalabad, Pakistan
*nafeesdcs@yahoo.com, rehman138@gmail.com Phone: +92-41-2650316, Fax +92-41-2654213