Estimation of fruit weight by cane traits for various raspberries (Rubus ideaus L.) cultivars

Raspberries are an important commercial fruit crop, widely grown in all temperate regions of the world. The raspberries contain significant amounts of polyphenol antioxidants such as anthocyanin pigmentslinked to potential health protection against several human diseases. The aim of this study was to estimate fruit weight by their cane traits (the number of canes, cane height, cane diameter, and caneyield) for Aksu Red, Canby, Heritage I, Heritage II, Holland Dwarf, Nuburg, Rubin, Summit, Tulameen, and Willamette cultivars grown in Central Anatolia region during 2002 - 2006. For this aim, average fruitweight (dependent variable) for each cultivar was estimated by independent variables such as the number of cane, cane height, cane diameter, and cane yield using Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA).The results clearly show that cultivars having the best fit (giving the best R2 values and the lowest RMSE) in MRA were: Holland Dwarf (99.64%), followed by Heritage I (99.06%), Summit (98.6%) Aksu Red(92.82%), Willamette (92.68%), Heritage I (90.46%), Rubin (90.28%) and Canby (85.45%). Multiple Regression Modeling gave good results for these cultivars. However, R2 values of these cultivars werefound higher (better fit) than those of Nuburg and Tulameen cultivars. It was concluded that the number of canes had significant negative effect on fruit weights of Heritage (P < 0.05) and Summit (P < 0.001)cultivars, but significant positive effect on only fruit weight of Rubin cultivar (P < 0.05). Cane height had significant positive effect on fruit weights of Aksu Red (P < 0.001), and Summit (P < 0.001) cultivars,while it had significant negative effect on fruit weights of Canby (P < 0.05) and Heritage I (P < 0.05). Cane diameter had significant positive effect on fruit weights of Aksu Red (P < 0.001), Heritage I (

Estimation of fruit weight by cane traits for eight American blackberries (Rubus fructicosus L.) cultivars

The present paper aimed to estimate fruit weight by their cane traits (the number of cane, cane height, cane diameter, and cane yield) for eight American blackberry cultivars (namely, Ness, Cherokee,Arapaho, Chester Thornless, Navaho, Black Satin, Dirksen Thornless and Cv. Jumbo) grown in Central Anatolia during 2002 - 2006. For this aim, average of fruit weight (dependent variable) for each cultivarwas estimated by independent variables such as the number of cane, cane height, cane diameter, and cane yield in Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA). With respect to determination coefficients for eachcultivar, it is clear that cultivars having the best fit (giving the best R2 values) in MRA were found to be Black Satin (99.40%), Ness (99.16%), Navaho (96.46%), Dirksen Thornless (96.22%), Chester Thornless (91.92%), and Cv. Jumbo (91.26%), which meant that most (almost 100%) variation in fruit weight for these cultivars was explained by the number of cane, cane height, cane diameter, and cane yield. However, corresponding values for Arapaho and Cherokee cultivars was estimated as 2.88% and 33.2% of the total variation in fruit weight. It was concluded that number of canes had positive-significant effect on fruit weights of Dirksen Thornless (P < 0.001) and Cv. Jumbo (

Adaptation of eight American blackberry (Rubus fructicosus L.) cultivars for Central Anatolia

Blackberry is an important fruit plant cultivated for its delicious fruit throughout Europe and America. Although the fruit has wide acceptance in Turkey, it is not cultivated on large scale. The study aimed toevaluate the performance of Arapaho, Black Satin, Cherokee, Chester Thornless, Dirksen Thornless, Jumbo, Navaho and Loch Ness cultivars of American origin for adaptation under Central Anatolian conditions at Ankara during 2002 - 06. The results showed that changes in the environmental conditions affected yield, performance of number of canes, cane length, cane diameter, yield per plant, fruit weight and total acid content (g/l) significantly. Overall comparison of the results showed that cv. Chester Thornless is most suitable for the environmental conditions of Central Anatolia

Genetic characterization of autochthonous grapevine cultivars from Eastern Turkey by simple sequence repeats (SSRs)

In this research, two well-recognized standard grape cultivars, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, together with eight historical autochthonous grapevine cultivars from Eastern Anatolia in Turkey, were genetically characterized by using 12 pairs of simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers in order to evaluate their genetic diversity and relatedness. All of the used SSR primers produced successful amplifications and revealed DNA polymorphisms, which were subsequently utilized to evaluate the genetic relatedness of the grapevine cultivars. Allele richness was implied by the identification of 69 alleles in 8 autochthonous cultivars with a mean value of 5.75 alleles per locus. The average expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity were found to be 0.749 and 0.739, respectively. Taking into account the generated alleles, the highest number was recorded in VVC2C3 and VVS2 loci (nine and eight alleles per locus, respectively), whereas the lowest number was recorded in VrZAG83 (three alleles per locus). Two main clusters were produced by using the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram constructed on the basis of the SSR data. Only Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot cultivars were included in the first cluster. The second cluster involved the rest of the autochthonous cultivars. The results obtained during the study illustrated clearly that SSR markers have verified to be an effective tool for fingerprinting grapevine cultivars and carrying out grapevine biodiversity studies. The obtained data are also meaningful references for grapevine domestication

Genetic characterization of Iranian grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) and their relationships with Italian ecotypes

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is one of the oldest and most important fruit crops in the world. Iran is considered as one of the regions where grapevine plants have been used and taken into cultivation. In the present study, 12 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to evaluate the genetic diversity among Iranian grape cultivars and their relationships with Italian ones. The observed number of alleles (N) per locus varied from 6 to 20 and also the number of effective alleles (Ne) ranged from 1.34 to 2.00 among cultivars, indicating that the SSRs were highly informative. The polymorphism information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.49 to 0.87 and classified the six loci as highly informative markers (PIC &gt; 0.70). The mean observed heterozygosity (Ho) was higher (0.85) than the mean expected heterozygosity (He) (0.43), demonstrating a random union of gametes in the population. Genetic similarity among cultivars ranged from 0.14 to 0.93, indicating high genetic variation among them. UPGMA and Bayesian clustering analyses revealed high genetic variation among studied cultivars and grouped them into two main clusters. The present findings might render striking information in breeding management strategies for genetic conservation and cultivar improvement