Sugar accumulation by in vitro cultured juice vesicles of satsuma mandarin

Juice vesicle explants including some mesocarp tissue excised from young sa tsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc. cv. Miyagawa wase) fruit, were cultured in vitro on MS solid medium supplemented with 1 mg/L BA and 5 or 10% sucro se under dark conditions at 25 degrees C. The juice vesicles grew expensive ly and turned orange. The juice vesicles accumulated sugar when cultured on the medium supplemented with 10% sucrose and incubated for two months. Sug ar composition in the cultured juice vesicles differed from that of fruit g rown in the field. The in vitro culture of juice vesicles may aid in elucid ating the mechanism of sugar accumulation and other compounds in Citrus fru it.