Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important vegetable crops highly appreciated for the nutritional properties and content of beneficial compounds for human health. After its domestication, this crop has been spread throughout the world and found its secondary centre of diversification in the Mediterranean basin, where numerous landraces have been developed. Among these, ‘San Marzano’ is a famous and remunerative PDO variety for processing and fresh market consumption. ‘Re Fiascone’ is an ancient cultivar for which ongoing efforts aim to promote its diffusion and commercialisation. Both find their origin in the Campania region in Southern Italy where in the past decades, several accessions have been selected and handed down by farmers. This study reports a comprehensive assessment for morphological and biochemical traits of twenty-one accessions of the two landraces. Fruit morphology and content of sugars and flavonoids were the most discriminating parameters among cultivars. Among sugars and organic acids, fructose and citric acid were the most represented compounds, respectively. We found level of trans-lycopene and β-carotene up to 112.82 and 16.29 µg g−1 of fresh product, respectively, while ascorbic acid levels reached values up to 22.48 mg 100 g−1 of fresh weight. Molecular analysis has been performed using a double approach for microsatellite genotyping based on capillary electrophoresis and high-resolution melting. Results highlighted a separation of the accessions according to ‘Re Fiascone’ and ‘San Marzano’ identifying both unique and admixed accessions between the two groups. The study approach aims at the recovery and valorisation of local genetic resources, but also at the identification of traits of interest to transfer in breeding programs.
Cultivated rocket (Eruca vesicaria) is a leafy vegetable highly appreciated for its health-promoting virtues and consumed both raw and cooked as ready-to-use vegetable. Despite Eruca being cultivated worldwide, only a few cultivars are available and limited breeding activities have been carried out so far. Therefore, the genetic resources available represent an unexploited potential source of variation for breeding. In the present study, 155 E. vesicaria accessions from 30 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and America have been characterized for 54 qualitative and quantitative morphological and quality traits. Conventional descriptors and automated tools for the determination of the quality, morphology, and colour of leaves have been used. Genetic diversity was assessed using 15 inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A high level of diversity was evidenced in the collection. Significant differences were found in most of the traits with the exception of five pseudo-qualitative descriptors. The first and second dimensions of a principal component analysis (PCA) with phenotypic traits accounted for 25.69 % of total variation showing a stratification of the genotypes according to the European and Asian origins. In total, 75% of the variation was contained in the first 15 components having eigenvalues higher than 1.0. Also, the population structure divided the collection into two main clusters separating European genotypes from the rest. Furthermore, hierarchical cluster analysis confirmed a geographical separation, grouping the accessions into three major clusters, which were differentiated by plant architecture, leaf and flower colour, leaf water status, leaf blade shape and hairiness of the leaves and stem. Our approach has broadened the knowledge of the diversity within the Eruca gene pool, thus contributing to identify sources of variation and to select the best candidates for cultivated rocket breeding programs, as well as to determine the genetic basis of plant and leaf traits in future genome-wide association studies.
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