Domestication of Citrines
A study on citrines investigated the centre of origin of citrus species. Analyzing hybrids and admixed genomes they could find information on the domestication of mandarin, sweet oranges and other citrus. Wu et al . (2018) analyzed 60 accessions from diverse citrus germplasms and studied their relationship by performing whole genome sequencings. They found that mandarins contain pummelo admixture. The process of admixture is the result of interbreeding lineages from distinct sources and further introduction within a population (Keller and Taylor, 2010). This admixture was found to be corelated with fruit size and acidity, suggesting pummelo introgression as taking part in the selection of palatable mandarins during domestication, which requires reduced acidity (Baldwin, 1993). Palatable mandarins demonstrated pummelo admixture in part of the genome, opposite to acidic mandarins, proving the previous statement since, in mandarins, palatability is linked to pummelo introgression at a lo...