Flowering and Fruiting Haploid and Doubled Haploid Pummelos

Abstract

Haploid and doubled haploid (DH) plants are of great value for genetic analyses and premeditated breeding. This is especially true for woody species, which are generally characterized by a long reproductive cycle, a high degree of heterozygosity, a large plant size, and self-incompatibility. In Citrus and related genera, some haploid and DH plants have been produced by techniques such as anther culture, interploid hybridization, and the pollination of irradiated pollen. However, there are few reports of the characteristics of haploid and DH plants' flowers, fruits, or reproductive potential. We selected a haploid progeny among small seed-derived seedlings obtained from 'Banpeiyu' pummelo [C. maxima (Burm.) Merr.], and we produced the DH plant of this haploid using colchicine-treated axillary shoot buds. Both this haploid pummelo and the DH pummelo showed normal growth and produced many flowers and fruit. In this chapter, we describe about the morphological characteristics and the reproductive potential of the haploid pummelo and the DH pummelo.