Screening and Evaluation of Excellent Blackberry Cultivars and Strains Based on Nutritional Quality, Antioxidant Properties, and Genetic Diversity

Abstract

To screen and evaluate excellent blackberry cultivars and strains, 17 indexes of plant growth and fruit horticultural and nutritional characteristics were measured, 20 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were analyzed, the fingerprints of 23 blackberry cultivars and strains were constructed, and the processing characteristics of 10 excellent cultivars and strains were evaluated. The results showed that ‘Chester’ and ‘Shuofeng’ had the highest plant yield (6.5 kg per plant), of which the ‘Chester’ fruit also had the highest hardness (2.78 kg/cm2). ‘Kiowa’ had the highest single fruit weight (10.43 g). ‘10-5n-2’ had the highest total anthocyanin content (225.4 mg/100 g FW) and total polyphenol content (3.24 mg/g FW), but a low plant yield. These results suggest that ‘Shuofeng’ and ‘Chester’ are the top two blackberry cultivars planted in Nanjing, with the best growth and comprehensive quality. Moreover, a total of 119 alleles were detected with an average number of 6 alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.374~0.844, with an average of 0.739, indicating a high genetic diversity among the 23 blackberry cultivars and strains. This study provides insight into the plant growth, fruit characteristics and genetic diversity of the 23 blackberry cultivars and strains, and is thus conducive to the protection and utilization of blackberry cultivars and strains.

The Effect of Phenolic-Rich Extracts of Rubus fruticosus, R. ulmifolius and Morus nigra on Oxidative Stress and Caco-2 Inhibition Growth

“…The observed discrepancies between the results and the literature are to be expected, given they are mostly related to variations in genotypes, origin, soil, treatments, and processing [35,38].…”

“…According to the literature, the presence of hydroxycinnamic acids, flavonols, and tannins in blackberries and mulberries increases their health benefits [35]. Although the only hydroxycinnamics identified in the current study were neochlorogenic acid and 5ρ-coumaroyl quinic acid, other studies have already reported the additional presence of caffeic, ferulic, and hydroxybenzoic derivative acids [16,36,37].…”