A new look at the evolution of Citrus in the journal Nature
In an international study, two researchers from our joint research unit, Patrick Ollitrault (CIRAD) and Franck Curk (INRA) helped to establish a new evolutionary model for citrus fruits based on complete genome re-sequencing data for 60 varieties and wild forms. The results were published in the journal Nature on 7 February 2018.
Cultivated citrus fruits are a good example of a species complex with a reticulated evolution (which results from interspecific hybridization), within which four ancestral taxa (C. reticulata, the mandarins, C. maxima, the grapefruits, C. medica the citrons and C. micrantha, a wild species), underwent allopatric evolution (evolution linked to the isolation of a sub-population from the others: formation of a physical barrier), in different regions of Asia. Thereafter, when they came into contact, those taxa generated the major modern horticultural types (oranges, pummelos, lemons, limes) by interspecific sexual hybridization.
Following on from the work by the International Citrus Genomics Consortium which produced the reference Citrus genetic sequence, and on the initiative of the Centro de Genómica, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA) in Spain, a partnership was set up between teams from Spain and the USA and members of the AGAP joint research unit (researchers from CIRAD and INRA) in France to analyse the evolution of the genus Citrus and of the sexually compatible related genera.
Published: 09/02/2018