Toward the valorization of olive (Olea europaea var. europaea L.) biodiversity: horticultural performance of seven Sicilian cultivars in a hedgerow planting system

An intense survey of the Sicilian's olive growing areas for autochthonous germplasm, mainly represented by centennials olive trees (Olea europaea var. europaea L.) apparently older then III centuries, started at the beginning of the 1980s and resulted in the selection of more than 150 cultivars and accessions. This germplasm was propagated in a nursery, by grafting onto seedlings of Olea europaea L., and planted in an experimental orchard, in an olive district located in the South-west of the Island, where they were evaluated for over 30 years and selected for their early bearing, high and constant productivity, as well as high oil content of the fruits and excellent chemical (oleic acid and phenol content) and organoleptic profile of the oil. This paper reports data on the horticultural performances (production, vigor, crop efficiency and oil quality) of four cultivars (\u2018Kalat\u2019, \u2018Olivo di Mandanici\u2019, \u2018Abunara\u2019 and \u2018Minuta\u2019), selected within the Sicilian's autochthonous germplasm trained as 'Free Palmetta' and tested in a hedgerow planting system at three different planting densities: 500, 666 and 1000 trees ha-1. The cultivar \u2018Nocellara del Belice\u2019, \u2018Cerasuola, and \u2018Biancolilla\u2019, widely cultivated in the area where the trial was carried out, were used as references. The outstanding performance of the cultivar \u2018Kalat\u2019 at planting density of 1000 trees ha 121, suggests that this cultivar can be a promising choice for the super high density orchards (SHD). The other cultivars tested did not performed as \u2018Kalat\u2019 and seem not suitable for SHD planting system due to their high vigor. The hedgerow planting system tested, in the first 6 years of planting, increaseed productivity of all cultivars compared to traditional olive orchard typical of the area where the trial was conducted. This hedgerow olive orchard may represent a valid solution to increase orchard productivity and to reduce harvest costs by mechanization, depending on tree high, with straddle or side by side canopy contact machines. Achieve higher yield and reducing management costs using autochthonous, resilient cultivars, could be a new strategy to counteract climate changes. The unique organoleptic profiles of the oils obtained from the cultivars tested, could improve the offer of tasty, flavored and nutraceutical extra virgin olive oils in the international markets. Results highlight the importance of preserving and valorizing biodiversity to increase productivity and resiliency of agricultural systems, facing continuous, fast and deep social and environmental changes

Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in Agricultural Research When Considering Criteria of Multifunctionality and Sustainability

Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs), as open-field crops, play an important role in multifunctional and sustainable agriculture as a result of their low energy requirements for cultivation and their many avenues of use, from the production of nutraceuticals, phytonutrients, and phytotherapy to land valorization. This Special Issue of Agriculture, “Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in Agricultural Research when Considering Multifunctionality and Sustainability Criteria”, aims to illustrate the role of MAPs in agriculture in low-impact farming practices, and the benefits they can generate in terms of functional products. This Special Issue covers all research aspects related to MAPs, including a number of scientific macro-areas, such as agronomy, chemistry and pharmacy, ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology, food and nutrition, and ecology. Key topics in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following: Sustainable agricultural practices of MAPs; Breeding and germplasm preservation of MAPs; The biodiversity of MAPs; The conservation of cultivated and wild MAPs; Ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology; Phytotherapy, phytochemistry, and phytopharmacology; Essential oils and secondary metabolites; Functional foods and MAPs; MAPs and degraded and marginal land recovery; The global marketing of MAPs; The legislation of MAPs

Olea

The genus Olea contains about 30 species were grouped into three subgenera, Tetrapilus, Paniculatae, and Olea (cultivated olive and wild relatives), found in Asia, Australia and Asia, Africa and Europe, respectively. The species O. europaea L. includes six subspecies: Olea europaea L. ssp. europaea (the Mediterranean olives); O. e. laperrinei (distributed in Saharan massifs of Hoggar, Aïr, Jebel Marra in Algeria); O. e. cuspidata (which moved from South Africa to Egypt, East Australian areas and Hawaii, and from Arabia to northern India and Southwest China); O. e. guanchica (Canary Islands); O. e. maroccana (southwestern Morocco); and O. e. cerasiformis (Madeira). Using molecular markers, it has been ascertained that the Mediterranean olives include the cultivated types (O. europaea L. ssp. europaea var. sativa), the true wild oleaster (O. e. e. var. sylvestris), and the feral form olevaster from seedlings raised from seeds of the cultivated types. The oleaster has a narrow range of distribution and it is often mistaken for olevaster. Recolonization of the Mediterranean basin by Oleaster occurred after the last glacial event, from refuges located in both eastern and western Mediterranean basin areas toward southern Europe. Oleaster is a source of rootstock for propagating new improved cultivated varieties. Cultivated and wild forms have the same diploid chromosome number (2n = 46) and are fully interfertile. Triploid and tetraploid genotypes have been isolated from cultivated O.e.e., but polyploid forms have been found in endangered natural populations of O. e. guancica (tetraploid) and O. e. maroccana (hexaploid). Individual oleaster trees showing superior performance for size and/or oil content of fruit were selected empirically during olive domestication and propagated vegetatively as clones using cuttings that were planted directly or, more recently, grafted onto indigenous oleasters. Genetic markers linked for most important agronomic traits, such as size of the tree, content of secondary products of fruit, flowering induction, oil quality, and biotic and abiotic resistance, will help introgression by conventional breeding of oleaster trait-enhancing genes into cultivated olive. Successful results were difficult to achieve due to both the complex genetic basis of the traits to be improved and the long juvenile period of the progenies that delays the expression of the target traits. In vitro techniques to regenerate doubled haploids from hybrids or somaclonal variation induction may complement classical breeding procedures. Genetic transformation could speed up the development of new genotypes, and transgenic olive plants with modified growth habit and putative induced disease resistance are being tested under filed conditions. However, the development of an efficient regeneration method from mature tissue is the limiting factor for the routine application of this technology to olive genetic improvement.La pubblicazione originale è disponibile sul sito dell'editore http://www.springerlink.co

Feature Papers in Horticulturae Ⅱ

Horticultural research has been undergoing fundamental changes to improve crop plants as a result of the emergence of new biochemical and molecular techniques. In addition, integration of new technologies with the desire to develop more sustainable production systems has also spurred production level research. The highlighted Feature Papers here reflect the diversity of the types of research performed on horticultural plant species, spanning basic to applied studies, production systems, and postharvest studies, in addition to highlighting some critical issues facing horticultural plant species

Genetic resources of Olea europaea L. in the Garda Trentino olive groves revealed by ancient trees genotyping and parentage analysis of drupe embryos

5openInternationalItalian coauthor/editorThe area of the Garda Lake within the Trentino province (north of Italy) is the northernmost part of Europe where the Mediterranean species Olea europaea L. is traditionally cultivated. ‘Casaliva’ is claimed as the main variety traditionally grown in the Garda Trentino area (GT) from which a world renowned niche extra virgin olive oil is produced. Since a dominant presence of ‘Casaliva’ would link the fruit set success and yield to a self-pollination compatibility system, a deep genetic survey of the olive tree population in the GT has been performed with the aim of establishing the actual varietal composition and of understanding from which pollen donor the ‘Casaliva’ olives originate. Forty-four dierent genetic profiles were observed among the 205 leaf samples collected from 106 ancient trees through the analysis of 20 nuclear microsatellite markers. The varietal composition in modern orchards was also explored and the vast majority of the additional 151 trees analyzed showed the same genotype as the ancient accessions of ‘Casaliva’. The results support the long historical link of ‘Casaliva’ with the GT and, besides a high varietal homogeneity, they also revealed the presence of olive genetic resources essential to fruit production. In fact, the parentage analysis of 550 embryos from drupes of ‘Casaliva’ evidenced that a cross-fertilization system is favored and a list of candidate cultivars most suitable as local pollinizers of ‘Casaliva’ was identified.openMoreno-Sanz, P.; Lombardo, L.; Lorenzi, S.; Michelotti, F.; Grando, M.S.Moreno-Sanz, P.; Lombardo, L.; Lorenzi, S.; Michelotti, F.; Grando, M.S

Oregano

Four multicrop germplasm collecting missions took place in Albania during 1993-95 which collected 5 accessions of oregano, subsequently deposited at the Germplasm Institute in Bari, Italy. This paper briefly considers the geographical distribution and taxonomy of Origanum in Albania and includes information on its cultivation and uses. (Abstract © CAB ABSTRACTS, CAB International

Usefulness of a New Large Set of High Throughput EST-SNP Markers as a Tool for Olive Germplasm Collection Management

Germplasm collections are basic tools for conservation, characterization, and efficient use of olive genetic resources. The identification of the olive cultivars maintained in the collections is an important ongoing task which has been performed by both, morphological and molecular markers. In the present study, based on the sequencing results of previous genomic projects, a new set of 1,043 EST-SNP markers has been identified. In order to evaluate its discrimination capacity and utility in diversity studies, this set of markers was used in a representative number of accessions from 20 different olive growing countries and maintained at the World Olive Germplasm Collection of IFAPA Centre ‘Alameda del Obispo’ (Córdoba, Spain), one of the world’s largest olive germplasm bank. Thus, the cultivated material included: cultivars belonging to previously defined core collections by means of SSR markers and agronomical traits, well known homonymy cases, possible redundancies previously identified in the collection, and recently introduced accessions. Marker stability was tested in repeated analyses of a selected number of accessions, as well as in different trees and accessions belonging to the same cultivar. In addition, 15 genotypes from a cross ‘Picual’ × ‘Arbequina’ cultivars from the IFAPA olive breeding program and a set of 89 wild genotypes were also included in the study. Our results indicate that, despite their relatively wide variability, the new set of EST-SNPs displayed lower levels of genetic diversity than SSRs in the set of olive core collections tested. However, the EST-SNP markers displayed consistent and reliable results from different plant material sources and plant propagation events. The EST-SNPs revealed a clear cut off between inter- and intra-cultivar variation in olive. Besides, they were able to reliably discriminate among different accessions, to detect possible homonymy cases as well as efficiently ascertain the presence of redundant germplasm in the collection. Additionally, these markers were highly transferable to the wild genotypes. These results, together with the low genotyping error rates and the easy and fully automated procedure used to get the genotyping data, validate the new set of EST-SNPs as possible markers of choice for olive cultivar identification

Domestication of Brassica oleracea L.

Various theories exist about the progenitors of B. oleracea L. (cole crops) and the area of its domestication. Relatively recent molecular data have pointed at the wild species growing on the European Atlantic cliffs as the closest relatives to all the cultivated types. Compatibly with all the existing observations, an alternative hypothesis is formulated here, namely that the domestication of B. oleracea occurred in a Mediterranean location, while the crop reached the Atlantic coast only at a later date, with the movement of people and cultures. The wild Atlantic populations are supposed to be re-naturalized escapes from the fields. If this theory could be confirmed, it would be plausible for all the cole crops to show the highest affinity with the Atlantic populations, since these belonged to the same genetic pool that underwent a domestication bottleneck. Our experimental work revolved around attempts to test the above-mentioned hypothesis through indirect means. Linguistic, literary and historical aspects of the use of cole crops indicate a deep-rooted knowledge and use of cole crops as well as of their wild relatives by the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Moreover, words used to name the coles throughout Europe largely if not exclusively derive from Greek or Latin roots. Analysis of the genetic diversity of leafy kales from around Europe did not find a geographic pattern and a directionality. Agro-ecosystems mimicking a situation of initial domestication, with cole crops and one of their wild relatives (B. rupestris Raf.) growing in close proximity to one another were analysed. Patterns of gene flow have been identified and domestication scenarios have been described. Evidence of populations of coles escaping from the field and becoming indistinguishable from truly wild populations was obtained with molecular marker studies. Finally, attention was given to the legal aspects of collecting wild specimens of genetic resources in Europe, with an analysis and discussion about this issue. This work analyses strengths and weaknesses of the existing theories of domestication of B. oleracea and supports an alternative and original hypothesis that will deserve to be further tested in future before a conclusive statement can be made on the origin of the coles

Advances in Plant Breeding Strategies : Nut and Beverage Crops

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