Citrus breeding shortcut discovered

[brian]

I just came across this paper that was published earlier this year:

'Precocious flowering of juvenile citrus induced by a viral vector based on citrus leaf blotch virus: A new tool for genetics and breeding' 
     at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26920394


Basically they took a protein thought to be responsible for triggering flowering, modified a known citrus virus to produce the protein, and infected some citrus trees.  They then took fresh citrus seedlings and infected them with the virus by grafting a bit of tissue from the already-infected stock.  By the second growth flush the seedlings were flowering and there were no side effects.  The virus doesn't spread via pollen and doesn't seem to be affect the next generation, and/or can be removed via an existing technique I'm not familiar with. 

So, it seems like the "wait 5-10 years" step of all citrus breeding programs is eliminated.  Infect all seedlings via small graft, and uninfect the winners.

I wonder if they'll give out some of this infected material, or if the flower-inducing protein is patented. 

[Citradia]

They need to sell it for $5.00 at LOWE'S.

[Solko]

That is pretty ingenious, I hope they can use the technique to speed up the breeding and selection process in order to find resistance to Citrus Greening.

[brian]

I'm interested because I want to breed new kumquat varieties in my lifetime.  Certainly would help with the greening fight, too.   I'm planning on reaching out to them to see if this will become accessible.

[Millet]

The new technique that brian has posted will do a lot for  breeding and selection, but my guess it wont change the growing methods currently used by commercial citrus nurseries much where they graft mature buds on to the rootstock.  However, will be big time advance in breeding.  - Millet

[Millet]

The full pdf

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pbi.12555/pdf

Pictures of how its done at the bottom of the link.


Millet

[brian]

I emailed the listed contact about tissue availability.  They are in Spain so even if the tissue were actually available there it would likely be very difficult to bring into the US.