Effects of harvest time and growth conditions on storage and post-storage quality of fresh peppers (capsicum annuum L

Abstract Studies were carried out to see the effect of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) on extending postharvest longevity of mid-season, late-season and greenhouse grown pepper fruits stored at 8 and 20ºC. Also, effects of MAP on post-storage quality of peppers stored at 20ºC were determined. Significant varietal differences in water loss and turgidity were observed in ambient atmosphere at each storage temperature. 'Keystone' (bell pepper) fruits had the lowest weight and turgidity loss followed by 'NuMex R Naky' (long green) and 'Santa Fe Grande' (yellow wax). Storage life for late-season field harvested peppers placed in ambient atmosphere was 10 to 14 days at 8ºC, whereas it was less than 7 days at 20ºC. Late-season field harvested peppers lost their quality at 8ºC primarily due to disease (fungal decay) and at 20ºC due to wilting and disease. Greenhouse grown peppers lost their quality after approximately 10 days at 8ºC and 5 days at 20ºC due to high water loss. MAP reduced postharvest water loss, maintained turgidity of fruits and delayed red colour development and disease. Compared to non-packaged fruits MAP extended postharvest life for another 7 days at 8ºC and 10 days at 20ºC as compared to non-packaged fruits held at these temperatures. Postharvest water loss and turgidity were similar for fruits stored in packages with and without 26-guage holes at 8 and 20ºC. Packaging was successful in extending the postharvest storage life of both mid-season field picked and greenhouse grown peppers. Packaging did not affect post-storage quality of fresh peppers as after removal of packaging fruits started dehydrating like the ones kept in open trays

Mejora del aroma y flavor en variedades tradicionales de pimiento y especies relacionadas (capsicum sp.): diversidad intra e interespecífica

Pimientos, chiles y ajíes son términos para denominar especies del género Capsicum, destacando el pimiento común (Capsicum annuum) por su amplia distribución, diversidad varietal, importancia económica y ser la predominante en España (Nuez et al., 2003). Es una de las hortícolas más importantes y se emplea en innumerables recetas, contribuyendo con su particular pungencia y/o flavor (DeWitt y Bosland, 2009). Si bien el conocimiento sobre factores relativos a la pungencia es muy amplio, los estudios sobre volátiles responsables del flavor son muy escasos y nulos en materiales tradicionales. Así, los primeros estudios sobre diversidad en volátiles de Capsicum, realizados por el Grupo de Mejora del pimiento del COMAV, permitieron identificar más de 300 compuestos (Rodríguez-Berruezo et al., 2010; Kolmannsberger et al., 2011). Se presentan avances sobre estudios de diversidad y premejora de la fracción volátil en variedades tradicionales de pimiento y se discuten las diferencias con sus formas modernas

The development of common data elements for a multi-institute prostate cancer tissue bank: The Cooperative Prostate Cancer Tissue Resource (CPCTR) experience

BACKGROUND: The Cooperative Prostate Cancer Tissue Resource (CPCTR) is a consortium of four geographically dispersed institutions that are funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) to provide clinically annotated prostate cancer tissue samples to researchers. To facilitate this effort, it was critical to arrive at agreed upon common data elements (CDEs) that could be used to collect demographic, pathologic, treatment and clinical outcome data. METHODS: The CPCTR investigators convened a CDE curation subcommittee to develop and implement CDEs for the annotation of collected prostate tissues. The draft CDEs were refined and progressively annotated to make them ISO 11179 compliant. The CDEs were implemented in the CPCTR database and tested using software query tools developed by the investigators. RESULTS: By collaborative consensus the CPCTR CDE subcommittee developed 145 data elements to annotate the tissue samples collected. These included for each case: 1) demographic data, 2) clinical history, 3) pathology specimen level elements to describe the staging, grading and other characteristics of individual surgical pathology cases, 4) tissue block level annotation critical to managing a virtual inventory of cases and facilitating case selection, and 5) clinical outcome data including treatment, recurrence and vital status. These elements have been used successfully to respond to over 60 requests by end-users for tissue, including paraffin blocks from cases with 5 to 10 years of follow up, tissue microarrays (TMAs), as well as frozen tissue collected prospectively for genomic profiling and genetic studies. The CPCTR CDEs have been fully implemented in two major tissue banks and have been shared with dozens of other tissue banking efforts. CONCLUSION: The freely available CDEs developed by the CPCTR are robust, based on "best practices" for tissue resources, and are ISO 11179 compliant. The process for CDE development described in this manuscript provides a framework model for other organ sites and has been used as a model for breast and melanoma tissue banking efforts

Successful wide hybridization and introgression breeding in a diverse set of common peppers (Capsicum annuum) using different cultivated ají (C. baccatum) accessions as donor parents

[EN] Capsicum baccatum, commonly known as aji, has been reported as a source of variation for many different traits to improve common pepper (C. annuum), one of the most important vegetables in the world. However, strong interspecific hybridization barriers exist between them. A comparative study of two wide hybridization approaches for introgressing C. baccatum genes into C. annuum was performed: i) genetic bridge (GB) using C. chinense and C. frutescens as bridge species; and, ii) direct cross between C. annuum and C. baccatum combined with in vitro embryo rescue (ER). A diverse and representative collection of 18 accessions from four cultivated species of Capsicum was used, including C. annuum (12), C. baccatum (3), C. chinense (2), and C. frutescens (1). More than 5000 crosses were made and over 1000 embryos were rescued in the present study. C. chinense performed as a good bridge species between C. annuum and C. baccatum, with the best results being obtained with the cross combination [C. baccatum (female) x C. chinense (male)] (female) x C. annuum (male), while C. frutescens gave poor results as bridge species due to strong prezygotic and postzygotic barriers. Virus-like-syndrome or dwarfism was observed in F-1 hybrids when both C. chinense and C. frutescens were used as female parents. Regarding the ER strategy, the best response was found in C. annuum (female) x C. baccatum (male) crosses. First backcrosses to C. annuum (BC(1)s) were obtained according to the crossing scheme [C. annuum (female) x C. baccatum (male)] (female) x C. annuum (male) using ER. Advantages and disadvantages of each strategy are discussed in relation to their application to breeding programmes. These results provide breeders with useful practical information for the regular utilization of the C. baccatum gene pool in C. annuum breeding.Juan P. Manzur thanks Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for a research predoctoral grant (2011-S2-4264, programa para la formacion de personal investigador). Authors are grateful to Centro Inv. Agr. Mabegondo, S. Larregla from NEIKER, P.W. Bosland from NMSU and the Consejos Reguladores of IGP Pimiento Asado del Bierzo, DOP Pimenton de Murcia, and IGP Piquillo de Lodosa for providing us with seeds from Arnoia, Guindilla de Ibarra, Numex, Bierzo, Bola and Piquillo, respectively.Manzur Poblete, JPA.; Fita, A.; Prohens Tomás, J.; Rodríguez Burruezo, A. (2015). Successful wide hybridization and introgression breeding in a diverse set of common peppers (Capsicum annuum) using different cultivated ají (C. baccatum) accessions as donor parents. PLoS ONE. 10(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144142Se0144142101