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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. 3 (2026)

Citrus tristeza virus resistance and graft compatibility of indigenous Citrus rootstocks for Khasi mandarin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.13535
Submitted
5 January 2026
Published
13-07-2026 — Updated on 29-09-2026
Versions

Abstract

Khasi mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) is a unique mandarin ecotype of Northeast India, playing a vital role in the socio-economic advancement of the people in this region. However, there is a rapid decline in the production and productivity of Khasi mandarin particularly in Meghalaya, primarily due to Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), which leads to an overall decline in production. The CTV is one of the major reasons leading to the overall decline in production and fruit quality. The use of resistant or tolerant Citrus species as rootstocks is one such strategy to combat the spread of disease thereby increasing the overall production. With this idea, exploration of locally available Citrus species as potential rootstocks was conducted at the College of Post Graduate Studies in Agricultural Sciences (CPGSAS), Umiam, Meghalaya during, 2024–25. Seven locally available Citrus species viz. Indian wild orange/Memang Narang (Citrus indica Tanaka), Pomelo/Soh-bah (Citrus maxima (Burm.) Merr.), Khasi papeda/Soh-Shyrkhoit (Citrus latipes Hook.f. & Thomson), Melanesian papeda/Soh-kwit (Citrus macroptera Montrouz.), Rough Lemon/Soh-myndong (Citrus jambhiri Lush.), Sweet orange/ Soh-niangriang (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck) were screened for resistance against CTV by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). It was observed that CTV relative band intensity in C. jambhiri (Soh-myndong) and C. maxima (Soh-bah) was found to decrease by 4.5-fold and 6.67-fold from 45 days to 90 days of CTV inoculation respectively, indicating that both species are resistant or tolerant to CTV. Further, graft compatibility of Khasi Mandarin using these resistant rootstocks were studied. Graft success rate of the cleft method was found to be 80 % in rough lemon and 72 % in pomelo. Similarly, graft success rate of T-budding method showed 75 % in rough lemon and 70 % in pomelo. Furthermore, CTV relative band intensity in the grafted plants reduced by 3-fold in rough lemon as rootstock and 5.71-fold in pomelo as rootstock, from 45 days to 90 days after CTV inoculation, with a significant decrease at 0.1 % level of significance, suggesting that both rough lemon and pomelo can be used as a rootstock for production of CTV resistant/tolerant quality panting materials.

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