Abstract
Lychee, longan, longli, and rambutan are closely related, commercially important fruit trees in the Sapindaceae family. Longli fruits are morphologically similar to both lychee and longan, displaying a yellow-brown pericarp like longan, and small, sharp protuberances like lychee. These similarities have led to the hypothesis that longli is the result of intergeneric hybridization between longan and lychee. Scanning electron microscopy and flow cytometry were used to examine trichome morphology and genome size, respectively, to test this hypothesis. Longan, lychee, longli (D. confinis), and ‘Malesianus’ (D. longan sub spp malesianus) had morphologically distinct trichomes. The genome sizes for lychee (554 Mb), longan (444 Mb), ‘Malesianus’ (404 Mb), and rambutan (339 Mb) are distinctive and in a narrow range. ‘Malesianus’ has a genome 9% smaller than that of longan and 27% smaller than that of lychee. It is likely a species that evolved independently in northern Borneo island, and could be classified as a species, Dimocarpus malesianus, not a sub-species of longan as presently stated. Flow cytometry revealed a 50% variation in genome sizes among longli varieties, with genome sizes ranging from 450 to 678 Mb, beyond the range between longan and lychee. The genome size variation and distinct leaf hair morphology suggest that longli is not an intergeneric hybrid, and it is likely a separate genus evolved independently. The tested cultivars with distinctive genome sizes within D. confinis could be classified as separate species.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Almeyada N, Mab SE, Martin FW (1979) The rambutan. Citrus Sub-Trop Fruit J 544:10–12
Aradhya MK, Zee FT, Manshardt RM (1995) Isozyme variation in lychee (Litchi chinesis Sonn.). Sci Hortic 63:21–35
Arumuganathan K, Earle ED (1991) Nuclear DNA content of some important plant species. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter 9(3): 208–219
Campbell R, Campbell CW (2001) Longan evaluation and selection in Florida. Acta Hort 558:125–127
Choo WK, Ketsa S (1992) Dimocarpus longan Lour. In: Verheij, E. W. M.; Coronel, R. E., eds. Plant resources of South-East Asia no. 2. Edible fruits and nuts. Wageningen: Pudoc-DLO
Choo WK, Yuen GY (1992) The diversity of Dimocarpus longan subspecies malesianus variety malesianus in Sarawak. Acta Horticulturae 292:29–39
Ding XD, Lu LX, Xue YB (2001) Cloning of ACC oxidase gene in fruit of Litchi chinensis Sonn. and its expression in E. coli. Acta Hort 558:161–165
Dolezel J (1997) Applications of flow cytometry for the study of plant genomes. J Appl Genet 38:285–302
Doleẑel J, Bartos J, Voglmayr H, Greilhuber J (2003) Nuclear DNA content and genome size in Trout and Human. Cytometry A 51A:127–128
Gómez-Lim M, Litz R (2004) Genetic transformation of perennial tropical fruits. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol-plant 40:442–449
Greilhuber J, Doleẑel J, Lysak M, Bennett M (2004) The origin, evolution and proposed stabilization of the terms ‘genome size’ and ‘C-value’ to describe nuclear DNA contents. Ann Bot 95:255–260
Groff GW (1921) The lychee and lungan. New York: Orange Judd. Hűlskamp M, Folkers U, Schnittger A. 1999 Trichome development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Int Rev Cytol 186:147–178
Hűlskamp M, Schnittger A, Folkers U (1999) Pattern formation and cell differentiation: Trichomes in Arabidopsis as a genetic model system. Int Rev Cytol 186:147–178
Ohri D, Komar A (1986) Nuclear DNA Amounts in some Tropical Hardwoods. Caryologia 39:303–307
Leitch A, Leitch I (2008) Genomic plasticity and the diversity of polyploid plants. Science 320:481–483
McConchie CA, Batten DJ (1991) Fruit set in Lychee (litchi chinensis Sonn.), variation between flowers, panicles and trees. Aust J Agr Res 42:1163–1172
McConchie CA, Vithanage V, Batten DJ (1994) Intergeneric Hybridization between lychee (litchi chinensis Sonn.) and Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.). Ann Bot 74:111–118
Menzel C (1992) Litchi chinese Sonn. In: Verheji EWM, Coronel RE (eds) Plant resources of South-East Asia no. 2. Edible fruits and nuts. Pudoc-DLO, Wageningen
Menzel C (2002) The lychee crop in Asia and the Pacific. FAO, Bangkok
Menzel C, Waite G (2005) Litchi and longan: botany, production and uses. CABI, Cambridge
Nakasone and Paull (1998) H.Y. Tropical Fruits, CAB International, New York, NY.
Pan LM, Zhu JH, Qin XQ, Peng HX, Huang FZ, Lu MY (2011) Genetic diversity of Dimocarpus confinis in Guangxi analysed by intersimple sequence repeats(ISSRs). J Fruit Sci 28(5):814–819
Soltis P, Soltis D (2009) The role of hybridization in plant speciation. Annu Rev Plant Biol 60:561–588
Tindall HD (1994) Rambutan cultivation. Food and agriculture organization of the united nations, Rome
Wall M (2006) Ascorbic acid and mineral composition of longan (Diocarpus longan), lychee (Litchi chinensis), and rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) cultivars grown in Hawaii. J Food Compost Anal 19:655–663
Zhao YH, Hu YL, Guo YS, Zhou J, Fu JX, Liu CM, Zhu J, Zhang MJ (2008) Inter-generic hybrids obtained from cross between litchi and longan cultivars and their molecular identification. J Fruit Sci 25(6):950–952
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by: Paul Moore
Robert VanBuren; Jianguo Li are contributed equally to this work
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Esm 1
(DOC 177 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
VanBuren, R., Li, J., Zee, F. et al. Longli is not a Hybrid of Longan and Lychee as Revealed by Genome Size Analysis and Trichome Morphology. Tropical Plant Biol. 4, 228–236 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12042-011-9084-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12042-011-9084-3