Welcome, Guest. Please login or register. Author Topic: What happens if you try to breed Triploid citrus Read times. SoCal2warm Hero Member Posts: zone 10 and zone 8a. Some of you may be aware that Oroblanco and Melogold grapefruits are triploid, meaning they have 3 sets of chromosomes rather than the normal 2. So a natural question that arises is what would happen if you tried to breed a triploid citrus with something else? What would you get.
Although Oroblanco is normally considered seedless, I found several fully formed large seeds inside one the fruits I just bought. I've been doing a lot of research, and wanted to present to you what I've found so far, in an attempt to answer the question.
I'm no expert in this area. Basically, when a triploid like Oroblanco pollinates another citrus variety generally a monoembryonic variety it induces the formation of seed. These seeds will be haploid, having only a single set of chromosomes from the female fruit parent.
Most of the gametes produced from a triploid will have unevenly split chromosomes during meiosis, but a smaller portion will also be diploid and haploid. That means that pollen from a triploid parent could contribute either one or two sets of chromosomes. Assuming that the female parent is diploid, this will result in the seed either having 2 or 3 sets of chromosomes. So you could get a normal zygotic seedling, or you could get another triploid.
The triploids will have a lower probability of having fully formed seeds, so the majority will not survive.
