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This work highlights ten true species of citrus fruit, four of which are the origin of modern cultivated varieties such as orange, mandarin, grapefruit, pomelo, citrus, lemon and lime trees. This knowledge paves the way for new varietal improvement strategies for these world's most cultivated fruits.
Continuing the effort of the International Citrus Genomics Consortium, which produced the reference genetic sequence for citrus in 2014 (1), Spanish, American and French scientific teams from CIRAD and INRA have joined forces to analyse the evolution of the Citrus genus and related genera (2). Based on data from the complete re-sequencing of the genome of 60 varieties and wild forms, representative of citrus diversity, the scientists proposed a new evolutionary model of the Citrus genus. This model challenges the taxonomic systems developed for citrus in the 1960s, which still explains the existence of three different botanical classifications for citrus today.