BACKGROUND: Citrus is usually propagated by grafting onto a rootstock. In Korea, As trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata) has dwarf and strong cold hardness, it is widely used as the rootstock of satsuma mandarin. Because ‘Shiranuhi’ ((Citrus unshiu × C. sinensis) × C. reticulata), a kind of citrus, also, generally is grafted onto a trifoliate orange, most of farmer has been recognized that ‘Shiranuhi’ root is naturally trifoliate orange. Meanwhile, reduction of flowering in ‘Shiranuhi’ orchard has been issued among the farmers and researchers over past few years and they guessed it was occurred by severe prune, oversupply of fertilization, overfruiting and temperature of growth period. However, a few researchers strongly assumed that it would be caused by scion rooting of ‘Shiranuhi’. So, this study was carried out to identify the existence of scion rooting in ‘Shiranuhi’ tree in Korea.
METHODS AND RESULTS: To identify the existence of scion rooting in ‘Shiranuhi’ tree, we randomly selected six ‘Shiranuhi’orchards and we surveyed three to four trees, which flowering was not enough, from six ‘Shiranuhi’ orchards respectively. We took the root samples of ‘Shiranuhi’ mandarin, and then separated the two group which were non-scion rooting (Trifoliate orange), and scion rooting (‘Shiranuhi’ mandarin). To identity the scion rooting, we used primer set of three types which were a F2/R15, F4/R15 and F5/R15 primer set. As a result, when we conducted the DNA analysis, fourteen tree in less bloomed twenty tree was proved as tree with the scion rooting of ‘Shiranuhi’ mandarin.
CONCLUSION(S): Scion roots of ‘Shiranuhi’mandarin were usually observed in a deeply planted tree, and xylem of ‘Shiranuhi’ root indicated more white color than a case of trifoliata orange. ‘Shiranuhi’ tree by scion rooting was more vigorous but less flowering than trees grafted onto trifoliata orange. When we used F2/R15, F4/R15 and F5/R15 primer set for discriminance of ‘Shiranuhi’mandarin root and trifoliate root, we identified the existence of scion rooting in ‘Shiranuhi’, From our results, it is suggested that the influence of scion root should be reviewed in ‘Shiranuhi’orchards.