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The conditions of the agroecological environment play a fundamental role in the physiological performance of quinoa; however, due to the accelerated expansion of quinoa cultivation and the great diversity of cultivars present in the world, it has not been possible to study the effect that their interaction can have, which brings with it problems in productivity and even in the adaptability of cultivars. The aim of this research was to evaluate the physiological performance of seven quinoa cultivars under three altitude gradients in the central region of Colombia (cold, temperate and warm climates). The research was developed using a completely randomized design with a 3 × 7 factorial arrangement where the first factor corresponded to the study areas and the second factor to the selected cultivars. The results showed a highly differential performance between the phenological, physiological and compositional variables, mainly between the quinoa cultivars planted in cold climates and those established in temperate and warm climates. In this sense, the time elapsed between the phenophases, the physiological activity associated with the chlorophyll content and the quantum efficiency of photosystem II, as well as the grain yield and its protein content, are highly influenced by the cultivar and the altitudinal gradient. The results obtained support the notion that the physiological performance of quinoa depends largely on the edaphoclimatic environment by influencing different agronomic and compositional parameters of the seeds. Additionally, it was possible to identify that the evaluated quinoa cultivars were grouped into two large groups. The first group is made up mainly of the Nueva and Soracá cultivars, while the second group includes the Nariño and Puno cultivars. These four cultivars show a lower effect of the factors and their interaction on the parameters evaluated.

Flowering time in almond is a complex process involving chilling and heat requirements. After being exposed to periods of low and high temperatures, the buds are able to break their dormancy state and sprout or flower. For suitable flowering, vegetative growth and fruit set, the chilling requirements have to be fully satisfied. In cold areas, where many new almond orchards are being established, late flowering is an indispensable trait for avoiding damage from late frosts. Due to the expansion of almond cultivation, late-flowering cultivars are also being grown in warm areas, although the long-term behaviour of these cultivars in such climates remains uncertain. In this work, we studied the extra-early flowering almond “Desmayo Largueta”, the extra-late “Penta” and the ultra-late “Tardona” for a period of three years, calculating the chilling requirements of reproductive buds for breaking dormancy, the heat requirements for flowering and the productivity in the warm conditions of South-East of Spain. “Tardona”, bred at our centre, CEBAS-CSIC, is the latest flowering almond cultivar released in the world to date. The chilling requirements (CR) of the cultivars were calculated according to the Richardson and Dynamic models, and the heat requirements (HR) were estimated according to the Richardson model. Results showed important differences in CR and HR between almond cultivars and years. Furthermore, the Dynamic model provided more stable CR estimations than the Richardson model over the years under our experimental conditions especially during warmer seasons. Finally, we observed a decrease in productivity in extra-late- and ultra-late-flowering cultivars in a particularly warm season, when chilling requirements were not fulfilled. This effect demonstrates the importance of growing cultivars in climatically suitable areas and the effect of increase of temperature in flowering and productivity of almond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Olea europaea L. is historically one of the most important trees of the Mediterranean countries. A second-order polynomial models were used to optimize the recovery of polyphenols from olive leaves from two typically produced Portuguese cultivars 'Negrinha do Freixo' and 'Cornicabra'. The model obtained produced a satisfactory fit for both cultivars for total polyphenols, total flavonoids, and antioxidant activity. At the best conditions (6 h, 50% ethanol and 1:20 w-v), extracts with a higher level of phenolics were obtained for the cultivar 'Negrinha do Freixo' (40.14 ± 4.35 mg GAE g-1 dry leaves) followed by 'Cornicabra' (27.10 ± 1.29 mg GAE g-1 dry leaves). The predominant phenolic acids were oleuropein derivatives accounting for a total amount of 58.81 and 23.49 mg g-1 dry leaf followed by oleosides with 45.16 and 32.09 mg g-1 dry leaf in 'Negrinha' and 'Cornicabra' respectively. Extracts had a strong potential as an antiaging ingredient and cosmetic/food preservative exhibiting antioxidant activity, capacity to inhibit elastase (82.5% and 87.5%), collagenase (98.7% and 50%) and tyrosinase (50% and 33%) for 'Negrinha do Freixo' and 'Cornicabra', respectively at a concentration of 5 mg mL-1. The 'Negrinha do Freixo' had the highest potential as an antimicrobial agent at 50 mg mL-1 being the minimum inhibitory concentration for E. coli, S. enterica and S. aureus and exhibited an inhibition of 70% and 67% for P. aeruginosa and B. cereus , respectively. [Display omitted] • Soli-liquid extraction of olive leaf polyphenols followed a polynomial model. • The cultivar 'Negrinha do Freixo' is a good source for polyphenols. • Oleuropein predominates in the extracts. • Extracts is a good natural source antiaging ingredient. • Ingredient with potential as cosmetic & food natural preservative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six tree traits (self-compatibility, blooming date, blooming density, productivity, leafing date and ripening time) and five pomological traits (kernel taste, in-shell weight, shell hardness, kernel weight and double kernel) were studied in an F1 almond progeny of 167 seedlings from the cross between the French cultivar ‘R1000’ and the Spanish cultivar ‘Desmayo Largueta’. In addition, a set of 135 codominant microsatellites or simple-sequence repeat (SSR) markers developed from peach, cherry and almond were used for the molecular characterization of the progeny. A genetic linkage map was constructed with 56 of these SSRs. Cosegregation analysis allowed the identification of the map positions of two major genes to be confirmed for kernel taste ( Sk) in linkage group five (G5) and for self-incompatibility ( S) in G6. QTLs mapped include two for leafing date ( Lf-Q1 and Lf-Q2) in G1 and G4, one for shell hardness ( D-Q) in G2, one each for double kernel ( Dk-Q) and productivity ( P-Q) in G4, one for blooming date ( Lb-Q) in G4, two for kernel weight ( Kw-Q1 and Kw-Q2) in G1 and G4, and two for in-shell weight ( Shw-Q1 and Shw-Q2) in G1 and G2. Four SSR loci (BPPCT011, UDP96-013, UDP96-003 and PceGA025) were linked to the important agronomic traits of leafing date, shell hardness, blooming date and kernel taste. Finally, the development of efficient marker-assisted selection strategies applied to almond and other Prunus breeding programmes was also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Established a new EMS mutant resource of Cucurbita pepo for breeding. [•] Relation among pollen viability, fruit set and seed production was evaluated. [•] Early plantlet selection for high pollen viability increased mutant lines production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Correlations between 29 quantitative tree and fruit traits were studied in 46 almond genotypes and some inter-specific crosses. Results reflected a significant diversity in the assayed almond germplasm. In addition, the obtained cluster demonstrated varying degrees of relationships, illustrating higher correlation values for the flowering traits and lower correlation values for the nut and kernel traits. To determine the importance of the traits and the levels of similarity existing between the various studied traits, a discriminate analysis was carried out. According to the results obtained from these analyses, the different traits were discriminated on basis of the characteristics of the presence of double kernels, the nut and the kernel size, the flowering date, kernel yield and shelling percentage. Finally, this study evidenced correlations between most of the agronomic traits in almond, although the correlations coefficient (r) value was found to be higher than 0.5 only in some cases. This analysis can help breeders for choosing the most favorable entries to build a core subset of the almond collection for the purpose of breeding. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Seventeen peach simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers have been used in the molecular characterization of 8 apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cultivars from Spain, North America, France, and Greece; a new breeding line from the apricot breeding program of INRA (Avignon, France); and 13 breeding lines and 3 new releases from the apricot breeding program of CEBAS-CSIC (Murcia, Spain). DNA fingerprints have been developed establishing the genetic relatedness among cultivars, new releases, and breeding lines. Amplification of SSR loci was obtained for all 17 primer pairs and 14 of them produced polymorphic amplification. The number of presumed alleles revealed by the SSR analysis ranged from one to nine, although most primers revealed three alleles or more. The mean number of alleles per locus was 4.1. Results allowed the molecular identification of all the apricot genotypes assayed. Apricot genotypes clustered into seven principal groups in accordance with their origin and pedigree. The implications of these results for apricot breeding programs in terms of protection of new release and design of new crosses are also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]