Inheritance of characters involved in fruit quality in a citrus interspecific allotetraploid somatic hybrid.

The main components of citrus fruit quality (organic acids, sugars, and aromatic compounds) were studied in fruits of a somatic hybrid allotetraploid between Willow leaf mandarin (Citrus deliciosa Ten.) + Eureka lemon [Citrus limon (L.) Burm.] and the two diploid parents. The somatic hybrid (WLM + EUR) combined both nuclear genomes of the parents, with chloroplasts and mitochondria of mandarin. Variations in sugar and acid content were studied in fruit pulp during the maturing period, and the chemical composition of peel oils was investigated by capillary gas chromatography (GC), GC/mass spectrometry (MS), and (13)C NMR. The somatic hybrid was close to the lemon parent in the synthesis of organic acids and close to the mandarin parent in fructose content, while sucrose and glucose contents were between the two parents. The aromatic compounds of WLM + EUR were close to mandarin with a non-negligible effect of lemon, which inhibits the methyl N-methylanthranilate, a mandarin-specific compound. Our results lead us to conclude that biosynthesis of compounds involved in citrus fruit quality is not inherited in an additive way in the allotetraploid hybrid. We observed mandarin dominance for fructose and most of the aromatic compounds, lemon dominance for organic acid and methyl N-methylanthranilate, and codominance for sucrose and glucose.