Clonal propagation of Citrus jambhiri Lush through nucellar embryo culture

Abstract

Citrus jambhiri Lush (Family Rutaceae) is native to India and is used as a rootstock to commercially important citrus trees like Citrus reticulata and Citrus sinensis. The seedlings have normally slow growth and majority of them do not attain appropriate size within a normal budding period for transplanting and one has to discard such under developed seedlings for budding [1]. One of the essential requirements for the successful application of plant propagation technology to agriculture is the capacity to regenerate elite plantlets. Micropropagation of commercially important Citrus species has been reported by many workers [2, 3] but the in vitro studies for C. jambhiri are not yet reported. With above views a protocol for clonal propagation of C. jambhiri has been developed using nucellar embryo as a starting material.