Abstract
Pummelos and hybrids, such as grapefruits, have high furanocoumarin and low flavonoid contents. Furanocoumarins interact negatively with certain drugs, while flavonoids are antioxidant compounds with health benefits. To obtain new grapefruit-like varieties with low furanocoumarin and high flavonoid contents, diploid and triploid hybrid populations from crosses between diploid and tetraploid “Clemenules” clementine and diploid “Pink” pummelo were recovered and analyzed. With regard to furanocoumarins, triploids produce less bergapten, bergamottin and 6,7-DHB than diploids. Regarding flavonoids, triploids yielded more eriocitrin, narirutin, hesperidin and neohesperidin than diploids, whereas no differences were observed in neoeriocitrin and naringin. These results indicate that, the strategy to recover triploid hybrids by 4x × 2x crosses is more appropriate than the recovery of diploid hybrids by 2x × 2x crosses for obtaining grapefruit-like varieties of citrus with lower furanocoumarin and higher flavonoid contents.
Highlights
Citrus fruits are characterized by their distinctive flavor and are considered functional foods, due to their antioxidant capacity as well as their nutrient content
Genetic analysis of 15 diploid and 15 triploid hybrids with six simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers confirmed that diploid hybrids were produced by haploid clementine female gamete with haploid pummelo male gamete, whereas triploid hybrids have been originated by the fecundation of a diploid female gamete from tetraploid clementine with haploid pummelo gamete, as expected, confirming the double mandarin genetic dosage of the triploid hybrids
The strategy used for the production of new grapefruit-like citrus varieties has great impact on the amounts of FCs and flavanones that will subsequently be produced by the hybrids at the population level
Summary
Citrus fruits are characterized by their distinctive flavor and are considered functional foods, due to their antioxidant capacity as well as their nutrient content. They are a good source of vitamin C, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, many B vitamins, minerals, and biologically active phytochemicals such as carotenoids and flavonoids (Liu et al, 2012). Hesperidin, neohesperidin, narirutin, eriocitrin, neoeriocitrin, and naringin are the most abundant flavanones in citrus fruits, differences in their contents are present on citrus species and its hybrids. Naringin and narirutin are present in greater quantities in grapefruit (C. paradisi Macf.) and neohesperidin and naringin are abundant in tangelos (C. reticulata× C. paradisi) (Peterson et al, 2006a,b).
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