Bulked Segregant Analysis of Seedlessness In Citrus kinokuni Hort. Ex Tanaka and Its Progeny

Citrus kinokuni ‘Mukaku kishu’ PI539530 and its progeny were studied to identify RAPD markers associated with seedless trait. A hybrid population consisting of ninety-one F₁ [(Robinson op) × C. kinokuni] individuals showed a 1:1 phenotypic segregation ratio between seedless and seeded phenotypes, with seedless behaving as a single dominant gene. Bulked segregant analysis was used to identify markers linked with the seedless locus. The screen of 1200 RAPD primers identified 18 markers associated with the seedless trait. The eighteen RAPD markers were mapped into a partial linkage map (~56.1cM length), with four of the RAPD markers closely flanking the seedless locus (8.5-5.1cM). The identification of molecular markers linked to the C. kinokuni Fs seedless locus constitutes an important and major tool for citrus breeding and selection.