Citrus breeding strategies and new released cultivars in the past decade in China

Citrus is the most important fruit crop in the southern part of China.
In the past decade since 2013, 96 cultivars were registered or patented in China.
Among them, 80 were from bud sports, seedling mutations and graft chimeras, 10 from sexual crossing, two from irradiation and four from cell fusion and ploidy crossing.
For the improved traits, seedlessness, fruit color, fruit size, high sugar/low acid, mature time and stress tolerance are the priorities for breeding and selection. ‘Zaohong’ navel orange, a graft chimera between navel orange and Satsuma mandarin has become a leading cultivar in the Three Gorges. ‘Cuimi’ kumquat, a 2x/4x mixoploid bud mutant with fewer oil glands, is seedless with larger fruit size and higher canker tolerance. ‘Jinqiushatang’ tangerine, a sexual hybrid cultivar between ‘Ehime 28’ and ‘Shatang’ tangerine, is seedless, early mature, productive with low acid.
The somatic cybrid cultivars of Satsuma mandarin with HB pummelo and ‘Shatian’ pummelo, respectively, are completely male sterile, and are being also used as seed parents to cross with seedy citrus cultivars in an effort to breed more seedless cultivars.

XV International Citrus Congress

Wen-Wu Guo, Kai-Dong Xie, Xiao-Meng Wu, Ju-Xun Wu, Xiu-Xin Deng

citrus, new cultivars, seedlessness, fruit color, fruit size, mature time

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2026.1448.10