Threat toCitrusin a Global Pollinator Decline Scenario: Current Understanding of Its Pollination Requirements and Future Directions

Abstract

Pollinators are vital for world biodiversity and their contribution to agricultural productivity is immense. Pollinators are globally declining with reports such as colony collapse being documented. Citrus exhibits a varying degree of pollination requirements due to its vast cultivars being developed all the time. The article intends to understand the breeding system of a few commercially important Citrus groups and discern its dependency on pollination services. The threat related to pollinator decline to the Citrus industry is measured not only by its reliance on pollinators but also the requirement of the consumers and manufacturers who mostly seek seedless varieties. Therefore, the threat can be tackled by developing high-quality seedless varieties where pollination requirement is absent. Although the importance of pollinators on several self-incompatible varieties cannot be negated, the impact of pollinator decline on its production will entirely depend upon the demand of the market.

Animal pollination contributes to more than half of Citrus production

“…citrus Huanglongbing or HLB), it will be necessary to evaluate a change in future market strategy or a re-evaluation of the quality standard to be marketed. In this context, animal pollination ensures a higher quantity and quality of fruit, both in terms of the weight of individual fruits and the sugar content of the juice produced 25,33,38,42 . Therefore, changing market demands, based on pollinator conservation may also be a possibility, especially when the number of seeds is not so relevant.…”

“…In addition to increased fruit set, some studies nd that insect pollination results in fruits of higher quality, with larger size, weight, and more juice quantity and sugars 24,25,31,32 . Thus, the contribution of pollinators to citrus production remains controversial 20,33 .…”

“…Given the wide variability in their breeding systems and the ample differences reported between studies, an actualized assessment of the cultivated species and cultivars is necessary 4,33 . In this study we used empirical data from different species and cultivars of citrus 1) to describe the main functional groups of pollinators that visit citrus crops in Argentina; also, 2) we evaluated the in uence of animal pollination on the probability of the ower setting fruit across citrus species/cultivars, and 3) its consequences in crop yield ha − 1 across citrus species/cultivars.…”

Geostatistical Methods to Build Citrus Cross-Pollination Risk Maps

“…The geostatistical approaches presented in this work can also be applied to improve pollination when and where required. Worldwide benefits and problems related to citrus cross-pollination have been illustrated in the literature [17]. However, the presence of seeds in citrus fresh fruits as a result of cross-pollination poses serious problems to marketing in Western countries, in which consumers are accustomed to seedless fruit.…”

Inheritance pattern of tetraploids pummelo, mandarin, and their interspecific hybrid sour orange is highly influenced by their phylogenomic structure

“…Moreover, the parthenocarpy of triploid varieties makes them useful for beekeeping due to their compatibility with the presence of bees in citrus plants, without the risk of producing highly seedy fruits. This is of great importance today since bee populations have dramatically declined in occurrence and diversity in the USA and Europe (Gurung and Chettri, 2022), making triploid varieties a bee-friendly option. Considering these combined characteristics, polyploidy breeding appears to be a relevant strategy for developing both new triploid seedless varieties, which are more respectful to the environment, and tetraploid rootstocks with enhanced abiotic stress tolerance.…”