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The present research was aimed at investigating the postharvest response of five Iranian grape cultivars including Sahebi, Dallah Ozoom, Rasha, Bidane Ghermez, and Askari under cold storage conditions (0, 7, 14, and 21 storage days) at 1 ± 0.2 °C and 90 ± 5% RH. The study focused on the changes in total soluble solids (TSS), berry firmness, total flavonoids (TF), total phenolics (TP), vitamin C, total anthocyanins (TAC), and total antioxidant activity (TAA) during the cold storage period. As an important quality attribute of grapes, total soluble solids (TSS) content was slowly increased during cold storage up to day 21, particularly in the Sahebi cultivar. The increase in berry firmness was mainly due to water loss. On the other side, the content of TF, TP, vitamin C, TAC, and TAA of grape berry extract decreased during cold storage. Furthermore, the grape cultivars represented significant differences in the studied physicochemical attributes. Sahebi represented the highest TSS and firmness and the lowest weight loss rate. At the same time, Rasha, a rain-fed grape cultivar, had the highest content of TAC, TP, TF, and the highest rate of TAA at the end of the cold storage period, which confirms its nutritional value for fresh consumption and wine production. Overall, cold storage appears to be a suitable procedure to maintain postharvest quality of Iranian grape cultivars’ fruit. The present results could be worthwhile for future employment of the Iranian grape germplasm to improve their postharvest and nutritional quality.

Salinity is one of the most crucial abiotic stresses which is the consequence of increase in the concentration of NaCl ions influencing plant’s growth, development, and yield. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-protein amino acid involved in various metabolic processes that accumulates in many plant species during stress conditions. The present study was aimed to evaluate the effect of GABA (0 and 25 mM) and salinity (3 and 5 dS m−1) on physiological characteristics and expression pattern of some salinity-related genes in strawberry cv. Aromas under soilless culture condition at 12, 24, and 36 h after treatments’ initiation. Based on the results, salinity increased the content of H2O2, MDA, and proline, while it decreased the percentage of MSI and the activity of SOD and POD antioxidant enzymes. In contrast, the implementation of GABA not only decreased H2O2and MDA content and maintained MSI percentage, but it also improved the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the transcription level of DREB, cAPX, MnSOD, and GSTgenes. Under non-stress conditions, GABA acted as a mild stressor by imposing effects similar to abiotic stress which could help plants adapt under the adverse environmental conditions. We concluded that strawberry plants had a better response to salinity by enhancing both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant physiological protection mechanisms and also by increasing the transcription of salinity-related genes upon GABA application.

ABSTRACTGenetic and chloroplast haplotype variations of 35 Iranian genotypes and 10 European grape cultivars were investigated using 9 nuclear simple sequence repeats (nSSRs), 4 chloroplast simple sequence repeats (cpSSRs) and 46 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. In total, 83 alleles were detected at nine nSSRs, giving a mean of 15.66 alleles per locus and polymorphism information content (PIC) values ≥0.75 ranged from 0.75 to 0.90. For SNP markers, PIC values varied from 0.30 to 0.39 with an average of 0.34. Analysis of molecular variance revealed 97 and 93% of partitioned genetic diversity within populations using nSSRs and SNPs markers, respectively. Un-weighted neighbour-joining (NJ) cluster analysis grouped grapes into 10 and 9 major clusters using SSR and SNP markers, respectively. Synonyms and homonyms were identified among the Iranian genotypes. Close genetic relationship among Farkhi and Bidane-Sefid genotypes may probably propose a common ancestor and mutational evolution. Most European cultivars were differentiated from Iranian genotypes, however, clustering of some Iranian genotypes with European cultivars in the same clusters suggests that clonally propagated materials have probably been exchanged from the Middle East to West or vice versa. C and D chloroplast haplotypes were the most frequent within the Iranian genotypes, while A chloroplast haplotype was exclusively observed among European cultivars.

AbstractThe utilization of natural and bio-rational insecticides such as plant essential oils has been extended in the recent years because of negative effects on environment and human health of synthetic chemicals. In the present study, toxicity of essential oils isolated from parsley, Petroselinum crispumL., and coriander, Coriandrum sativumL., have been investigated against three major stored-product insect pests; cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculatesF.), Mediterranean flour moth (Ephestia kuehniellaZeller) and Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella(Hübner)). Chemical analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry displayed Dlimonene (18.83 %), myristicin (17.18 %) and apiol (10.09 %) in the essential oil of P. crispumand (+)-(S)carvone (39.55 %) and 4-carene (35.28 %) in the C. sativumessential oil were main components. The essential oils revealed significant toxicity against tested insects. LC50values of C. sativumand P. crispumessential oils against C. maculatusadults were 72.167 and 71.071 μ/l air, respectively. These values were achieved as 62.633 and 52.412 μ/l air for E. kuehniellaand 50.956 and 55.197 μ/l air for P. interpunctellalarvae, respectively. For both essential oils a correlation between concentrations and mortality percentage has been attained. According to the results of present study, essential oils of P. crispumand C. sativumhave worthy potential in the integrated management of C. maculatus, E. kuehniellaand P. interpunctella.