The Fruits and Genetic Characteristics of the Kuroshima-mikan or Shimamikan (Citrus sp.) Grown on Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

抄録

Kuroshima-mikan (synonym: Shimamikan) (Citrus sp.) is a local citrus grown on islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, located in temperate and subtropical areas: Nagashima, Koshikijima, Kuroshima, Tanegashima, Yakushima, Amami Oshima, Kakeromajima, and Tokunoshima. In general, all six Kuroshima-mikan accessions collected on different islands showed similar fruit characteristics. Although the fruit characteristics of Kuroshima-mikan and Kishu-mikan ‘Sakurajima-komikan’ (C. kinokuni) were similar, differences were observed in the flavor, titratable acidity, and embryony. The embrony of the former was polyembryony and that of the latter was monoembryony. In the six Kuroshima-mikan accessions, the genotype combinations of 16 cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) markers were identical to each other. Kuroshima-mikan was distinguished from all control accessions and was closely related to the Chinese mandarin Sunki (C. sunki). The genetic differences between Kuroshima-mikan and the Chinese mandarin Kishu-mikan ‘Sakurajima-komikan’ were greater than those between Kuroshima-mikan and the Indian mandarin Cleopatra (C. reshni), the Japanese mandarin ‘Ogimi-kuganii’ (C. depressa), and Tachibana (C. tachibana). Kuroshima-mikan was distant from the sweet and sour orange, citron, and pummelo. The results of the CAPS analysis ruled out a parent-offspring relationship between Kuroshima-mikan and ‘Sakurajima-komikan’.