Morphological variability of Mauritanian date-palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars as revealed by vegetative traits

The aim of this study was to use morphological markers to characterize twelve Mauritanian date-palm ecotypes currently grown by farmers. Eighteen phenotypic traits describing the vegetative systems were measured in the field in Atar Oasis. The data set was analyzed by principal components analysis (PCA) and UPGMA clustering. PCA revealed a great variability among the cultivars. Fourteen out of the 18 characters studied showed a high discriminating power suggesting their possible uses in the establishment of a Mauritanian date-palm catalogue. UPGMA Clustering revealed association between cultivars with similar fruit characteristics indicating that these ecotypes are morphologically related. Results also showed that individuals belonging to the Ahmar cultivar were morphologically distinct, suggesting it is likely a polyclonal variety

Organic Acids, Sugars, and Anthocyanins Contents in Juices of Tunisian Pomegranate Fruits

Juices made from fruits of 30 Tunisian accessions of pomegranate were studied for their organic acids, sugars, and anthocyanin contents, using high performance liquid chromatography. Among the detected organic acids, malic acid was the major one (>50%) followed by citric acid (>22%), while among sugars, fructose and glucose were most present in pomegranate juice contributing 53.9 and 43.4% of the total sugar content, respectively. The total anthocyanin content ranged from 9-115 mg per litre of juice with the following ranges of the six compounds found: cyanidin-3,5-diglucoside (3.1-74.4 mg/L), delphinidin-3-glucoside (0.7-22.0 mg/L), cyanidin-3-glucoside (0.8-21.0 mg/L), pelargonidin-3-glucoside (0.5-16.1 mg/L), pelargonidin-3,5-diglucoside (0.0-11.8 mg/L), and delphinidin-3,5-diglucoside (0.0-5.4 mg/L). Based on the analyzed parameters, cluster analysis allowed grouping cultivars into two main clusters. One was made of sour cultivars and the second of the sweet ones. Principle component and cluster analyses suggested that the composition of the pomegranate fruits is determined by cultivar rather than cultivation location

Etude de la variabilité des estérases carboxyliques chez quelques populations naturelles de deux espèces du genre Hedysarum

International audienc

Phylogenetic relationships in Tunisian date-palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) germplasm collection using DNA amplification fingerprinting

DNA amplification fingerprinting analysis has been performed to investigate phylogenetic relationships among a collection of Tunisian date-palm varieties. A set of universal decamer primers was used to generate DNA fragments from several different varieties in order to evaluate genetic distances between the tested varieties and to construct phylogenetic trees. The phenetic analyses among some of the good fruit quality varieties were conducted using appropriate programs. Thus, clusters including the tested varieties are apparently related according to their date quality. However, Deglet Nour and Kentichi varieties, characterised by their opposite fruit qualities, seem to be dissimilarly related to the others. Our data provides evidence of RAPDs as a powerful technique which may be used to get phenetic information within Tunisian date-palm varieties but does not identify them as monophyletic groups.Analyse des relations phylogénétiques entre des variétés tunisiennes d'une collection de palmier dattier par la technique d'amplification aléatoire de l'ADN polymorphe (RAPD). Des amorces universelles de 10 nucléotides ont été utilisées pour générer des profils d'amplification à partir de quelques variétés. Les profils obtenus montrent la présence de plusieurs marqueurs génétiques discrets. Ces marqueurs, correspondant aux fragments d'ADN amplifiés, ont été utilisés pour évaluer les distances génétiques entre les variétés testées et pour construire des arbres phylogéniques. L'analyse statistique des données a permis de mettre en évidence les relations phylogénétiques entre les variétés caractérisées par leur bonne qualité dattière. La topologie des regroupements ainsi obtenue rappelle celle observée en tenant compte de la qualité des dattes issues des variétés testées. Cependant, les deux variétés Deglet Nour et Kentichi, caractérisées par des qualités dattières opposées, se différencient des autres variétés étudiées. Les résultats montrent clairement que la technique utilisée constitue un outil efficace pouvant être utilisé comme une approche informative des relations phylogénétiques qui existent entre les variétés tunisiennes de palmier dattier sans pour autant pouvoir les identifier comme des groupes monophylogénétiques

Seed and juice characterization of pomegranatenext term fruits grown in Tunisia: Comparison between sour and sweet cultivars revealed interesting properties for prospective industrial applications

Tunisian previous termpomegranatenext term genetic resources consist of sweet and sour cultivars, showing large morphometric variability. In the present work we characterized seeds and juice contents of sugars and organic acids of 5 sour and 7 sweet previous termpomegranatenext term cultivars. Results showed that citric acid was predominant in sour previous termpomegranatesnext term, while malic acid was the most prevalent in sweet ones. Paradoxically, sour cultivars have higher sugar content than the sweet ones. A strong correlation was found between sourness and citric acid content, which is assumed to be the major factor that determines sour taste in previous termpomegranatenext term fruits. Besides, some of the seed parameters showed a significant positive correlation with acidity. Sweet cultivars were appropriate for fresh consumption and juice production due to several attributes in addition to their sweetness. Equally, sour previous termpomegranatenext term showed several characteristics that could be of great interest for food and nutraceutical industries

Analyse de la diversité génétique de cultivars tunisiens de figuier (

Introduction. Une étude a été réalisée pour évaluer la variabilité génétique d'une collection d'écotypes de figuier (Ficus carica L.) établie dans la région du Sahel, en Tunisie. Elle a été basée sur l'observation de caractères morphologiques relatifs au développement végétatif de l'arbre. Matériel et méthodes. Les mensurations de feuilles et rameaux de 17 écotypes de figuiers tunisiens ont été mesurées à raison de deux arbres échantillonnés par cultivar. Les résultats ont été soumis à une analyse de variance et à des analyses multivariées qui ont permis d'obtenir une matrice des corrélations entre caractères mesurés et une table des distances de Mahalanobis entre les écotypes. Résultats et discussion. La variabilité intracultivar s'est révélée très faible. En revanche, la diversité intercultivar apparaît très importante et cela indépendamment de l'origine géographique et du sexe de la plante. Conclusion. Quelques paramètres morphologiques ont permis de bien différencier les cultivars. Ils pourraient être utilisés comme descripteurs chez cette espèce

Characterization of Tunisian pomegranatenext term (Punica granatum L.) cultivars using amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis

The amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis of DNA was used to characterize 34 previous termpomegranatenext term cultivars. By using a combination of six primers, a total of 327 markers were scored with a mean of 57.5. The high percentage of polymorphic bands (ppb) of 94.7 and the resolving power (Rp) collective rate value of 129.14 were scored. Data proved that the tested primers were informative to discriminate among cultivars and to survey the genetic diversity in this fruit crop. It has been assumed that the local previous termpomegranatenext term germplasm is characterized by a typically continuous genetic diversity. The derived dendrogram proved that cultivars are clustered independently from their geographical origin and their denomination. In addition, AFLP permitted the generation of a nearly unlimited number of molecular markers that are reliable in differentiating the cultivars and/or the polyclonal varieties