Germinability of Embryos during Seed Development in Citrus (Rutaceae)

Germinability during embryo development was investigated om 5 Citrus cultivars with different degree of polyembryony and earliness of fruit ripening. Mature embryos extracted from fruits of the 5 cultivars on January 15 germinated on water by 3 days after sowing (DAS). In these cultivars, germination rates of embryos from green fruits collected in the middle of september were very low, increased rapidly in those collected in the late of September and erached 100% by 3.5 DAS in those extracted in October. The increase of germination rate was different in different cultivars. In satsuma mandarin, embryos of early ropening \u27Okitsuwase\u27 was preceded in growth and germinated about two weeks faster than those of middle ripening \u27Hayashi Unshiu\u27. \u27Hassaku\u27 embryos showed the fastest germinationi rate whereas highly polyembryonic \u27Seminole\u27 embryos showed the slowest rate. It was estimated from those results that embryos matured in the early of October for \u27Okitsuwase\u27, the middle of October for \u27Hayashi Unshiu\u27 and \u27Hassaku\u27, the late of October for \u27Kawano Natsudaidai\u27 and the early of December for \u27Seminole\u27. In polyembryonic mature seeds, alone and combined applications of 1 mg/l GA3 and 20mg/l adenine solutions increased the number of germinated embryos per seed. Germination of the immature embryos with low germinability was enhances by light (3000 luxes), MS medium, adenine (10-100mg/l), gibberelin (GA3 1-10mg/l) and combinaiton of these factors. These results may contribute to the efficient cross breeding in Citrus