SSR Markers in the Genus <em>Pistacia</em>

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are one of the most powerful molecular marker systems due to abundance in the genomes, its codominant nature, and high repeatability. P. vera L. is cultivated species in the genus Pistacia due to commercial value of its edible nuts. Other species in the genus are in the wild and are important especially for rootstock sources as well as for ornamental and forest trees. There were a very limited number of SSR markers for Pistacia species until several years ago; however, next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology has allowed to develop plenty of SSRs since 2016 in the genus. There are currently about 1500 published SSR markers developed from cultivated P. vera. There are also several studies generating SSR loci from wild Pistacia species. In a conclusion, there are currently an adequate number of SSR markers for cultivated pistachio and that can be used in wild Pistacia species due to their high level of transferability rate between Pistacia species. These SSRs can be used for assaying diversity in natural populations, marker discovery, germplasm characterization, parental identification, genetic linkage mapping, and evolutionary studies in the genus Pistacia

Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Agronomical Traits in Strawberry

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) is derived from Fragaria chiloensis and Fragaria virginiana species a few centuries ago, and it is one of the most preferred and consumed berries all over the world because of its a good source in terms of many nutritional elements. Strawberry has high genetic variability and adaptation to different environmental conditions due to its highly heterozygous nature. In the last decades, many farmers, breeders, researchers even consumers have started to focus on berry quality traits such as large fruit, uniform shape, high fruit firmness, high fruit sensorial quality (aroma contents), color, gloss, and resistance to pathogens. Thus, the development of novel strawberry cultivars or genotypes with high nutritionally quality traits has become one of the main aims in strawberry breeding programs. Biotechnological tools such as the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and marker-assisted selection (MAS) are the most widely used technologies in fruit breeding programs for shortening the breeding period. Identification of QTLs in agnomical important traits are very valuable tools for early selection in strawberry breeding programs. This chapter is focused on QTL and marker assisted breeding studies in strawberry to date and provides new perspectives on molecular breeding in strawberry breeding

Volatile Compounds of New Promising Dried Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) Genotypes

Turkey has rich wild apricot populations and all Turkish apricot cultivars were previously selected among wild apricots. On this background for apricot breeding, six new late flowering dried apricot genotypes were taken under study, along with wide spread cv. 'Hacihaliloglu'; all genotypes were examined in terms of volatile compounds using Headspace-Solid Phase Micro Extraction - Mass Spectrometry (HSSPME/GC/MS) techniques. The most important volatiles of apricot genotypes were aldehydes, alcohols, esters, terpenes, ketones and acids. Among these compounds, ethanol, hexanal, 3-carene, squalene, acetic acid, tetradecaonic acid, pentadecaonic acid, octadecaonic acid, n- hexadecaonic acid and 1-hdroxy-2-propanone were present in all genotypes studied at certain levels. In general, total concentrations of aroma compounds were higher in some promising genotypes under study than within 'Hacihaliloglu' cultivar, except total alcohol compound (53.33%). Volatile compounds, particularly esters, were the major contributors to fruity, floral and pleasant fruit flavours. The highest esters' compound contents were detected in 'N95' (9.2%) and 'N57' (2.18%) genotypes, while 'Hacihaliloglu' had 1.61% ester compounds. Lacton (γ-decalactone) was a key aroma compound of apricot. γ-decalactone was detected ranging between 0.4-1.13% in all genotypes, except cv. 'Hacihaliloglu'. The hereby obtained results showed that the volatile composition depended largely upon the apricot genotypes, moment of harvest, growing conditions and cultural applications that may all affect fruit quality. These results represent valuable starting points for apricot breeding programs

Sugar, Invertase Enzyme Activities and Invertase Gene Expression in Different Developmental Stages of Strawberry Fruits

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is octoploid (2n = 8x = 56) and has been the focused fruit species of which an increasing number of molecular and genetic research has been conducted in recent years. The aim of this study is to identify the relationships between sucrose metabolism, invertase enzyme activity and gene expression in four different fruit development periods (red, pink, green and white) of two commercially important strawberry varieties ‘Rubygem’ and ‘Fortuna’. The metabolite profiles (glucose, fructose, sucrose and total sugar content) of two varieties were discovered to be extremely similar. The highest amount of total sugar was found in red fruits, while the lowest was obtained from green fruits. Invertase represents one of the key enzymes in sucrose metabolism. The lowest invertase activity was obtained from the green fruits in ‘Rubygem’ and ‘Fortuna’ during four developmental periods. In these varieties, the amount of sucrose was found to be close to glucose and fructose and the lowest amount was detected in green period, while invertase activity was relatively high during red and pink periods and invertase gene expression was determined at high levels in both primers (St-4 and St-6) in the green period. The results of the study indicated that sugar content and invertase activity were positively correlated while enzyme activity and gene expression were negatively correlated. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.FBA-2020-12969Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the Cukurova University Scientific Research Projects (Turkey) (FBA-2020-12969) for financial support

Genome survey of pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) by next generation sequencing: Development of novel SSR markers and genetic diversity in Pistacia species

Genetic diversity measures in P. terebinthus: allele ranges, number of alleles (Na), number of effective alleles (Ne), observed heterozygosity (Ho), expected heterozygosity (He), and PIC values of 119 polymorphic SSR loci. (DOCX 38 kb

Determination of S alleles in Paviot × Levent apricot progenies by PCR and controlled pollination

In this study, the sexual incompatibility of Paviot and Levent apricot parents and 89 F1 (Paviot × Levent) progenies was determined by self-pollination experiments and S-allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. According to the self-pollination and isolation analyses under field conditions, it was found that the Paviot genotype is self-compatible (SC), whereas the Levent genotype is self-incompatible (SI). It was determined that, of all the progenies, 55 had a fruit set below 5% and were self-incompatible, whereas 34 had a fruit set over 5% and were self-compatible. The PCR-based techniques showed that, in parallel to the data obtained from the field studies, 55 F1 progenies did not have Sc allele, whereas 34 progenies involved Sc allele. There were ScS2 alleles in the Paviot genotype and S20S52 alleles in the Levent genotype. It was determined that there were S2S20, S2S52, ScS20, and ScS52 alleles in 89 F1 progenies and the distribution of the four alleles in the progenies was found to be as follows: 35.9% S2S20, 25.8% S2S52, 23.6% ScS20, and 14.6% ScS52. F1 progenies nos. 41, 46, 86, and 89 should be used as pollinators in further breeding studies

Fatty acids composition in Pistachio

Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.), is an important food source for human health. It has nutritional content rich in protein, fat, fatty acids, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Such as other nuts, pistachio oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids. Pistachio is rich in omega fatty acids such as n-3, n-6, n-9, it is known to be beneficial in decreasing cholesterol by increasing HDL level in blood plasma. Oleic acid (C18: 1) and palmitoleic acid are the main component of unsaturated fatty acids in pistachio. It has fatty acids such as linoleic acid and alpha linoleic acid among polyunsaturated fatty acids and myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid among saturated fatty acids. Gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) is generally used for the analysis of fatty acids in foods. The main component of unsaturated fatty acids contained in pistachio is oleic acid (C18: 1) and the variety varies between 51.6% and 81.17% according to the origin. Linoleic acid (C18:2) content, which is a polyunsaturated fatty acid, varies between 15% and 30%. Stearic acid content of saturated fatty acids varies between 0.8% and 3.5%. This review provides information about the properties and curent status of the fatty acids in pistachios

Genetic relatedness among quince (<i>Cydonia oblonga</i> Miller) accessions from Turkey using amplified fragment length polymorphisms

Among fruit species cultivated in Turkey, quince shows a great deal of morphological variability and adaptability to the various environments. We attempted to study genetic relationships among 40 quince accessions using amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) for future breeding programs. The accessions were previously characterized based on their pomological and yield characteristics and then the best ones were planted in a single collection in Ataturk Central Horticultural Research Institute, Yalova, Turkey. Six AFLP primer combinations generated a total of 746 bands, 493 of which were polymorphic (66.1%). Resolving powers of the AFLP primers ranged from 48.0 to 99.6 making a total of 421.5. Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Average (UPGMA) clustering of the accessions showed three major clusters and ‘SapancaEsme’ and ‘Esme-3’ were the closest accessions with 95% similarity. Our study indicated that there is a high level of genetic diversity among quince accessions in Turkey and the results of this study can be used for future cultivar breeding programs in quince

Nutritional analysis of red-purple and white-fleshed pitaya (hylocereus) species

Pitaya is one of the most preferred and produced tropical fruit species recently introduced to the Mediterrranean region in Turkey. Due to its nutritional fruits with high economic value, the popularity of pitaya increases steadily in Turkey as an alternative crop. No detailed nutritional analysis has been undertaken in Turkey so far on fruits of the pitaya species. In this study, we determined and compared some nutritional parameters in fruit flesh of two pitaya (dragon fruit) species (Hylocereus polyrhizus: Siyam and Hylocereus undatus: Vietnam Jaina) grown in the Adana province located in the eastern Mediterranean region in Turkey. The individual sugars, antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, phenolic compounds and volatiles were determined for the first time in Turkey on two pitaya species. The results showed that total phenol content and antioxidant capacity are notably higher in red-fleshed fruits than white-fleshed ones and the predominant phenolic compound in fruits of both species was quercetin. The total sugar content and most of the phenolic compounds in fruits of two pitaya species were similar. A total of 51 volatile compounds were detected by using two Solid Phase Micro Extraction (SPME) fibers, coupled with Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques, and more volatile compounds were presented in the white-fleshed species. Total phenolic content (TPC) of the red-fleshed and white-fleshed pitaya species were 16.66 and 17.11 mg GAE/100 g FW (fresh weight). This study provides a first look at the biochemical comparison of red-fleshed and white-fleshed pitaya species introduced and cultivated in Turkey. The results also showed, for the first time, the biochemical content and the potential health benefit of Hylocereus grown in different agroecological conditions, providing important information for pitaya researchers and application perspective. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.FBA-2019-11325; IGA/FT/2022/004Cukurova University Scientific Research Projects (Turkey) [FBA-2019-11325]Cukurova University Scientific Research Projects (Turkey) [FBA-2019-11325