Plasticity of fruit and oil traits in olive among diferent environments

Olive is a long-living perennial species with a wide geographical distribution, showing a large genetic and phenotypic variation in its growing area. There is an urgent need to uncover how olive phenotypic traits and plasticity can change regardless of the genetic background. A two-year study was conducted, based on the analysis of fruit and oil traits of 113 cultivars from fve germplasm collections established in Mediterranean Basin countries and Argentina. Fruit and oil traits plasticity, broad‐sense heritability and genotype by environment interaction were estimated. From variance and heritability analyses, it was shown that fruit fresh weight was mainly under genetic control, whereas oleic/(palmitic+linoleic) acids ratio was regulated by the environment and genotype by environment interaction had the major efect on oil content. Among the studied cultivars, diferent level of stability was observed, which allowed ranking the cultivars based on their plasticity for oil traits. High thermal amplitude, the diference of low and high year values of temperature, negatively afected the oil content and the oleic acid percentage. Information derived from this work will help to direct the selection of cultivars with the highest global ftness averaged over the environments rather than the highest ftness in each environment separately.EEA San JuanFil: Mousavi, Soraya. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources; ItaliaFil: Mousavi, Soraya. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems of the Mediterranean; ItaliaFil: De la Rosa, Raúl. Instituto Andaluz de Investigación y Formación Agraria, Pesquera, Alimentaria y de la Producción Ecológica (IFAPA). - Centro Alameda del Obispo; EspañaFil: Moukhli, Abdelmajid. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). Centre Régional de la Recherche Agronomique( CRRA); MarruecosFil: El Riachy, Milad. Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI); LíbanoFil: Mariotti, Roberto. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources; ItaliaFil: Torres, Myriam Mariela. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Juan; Argentina.Fil: Torres, Myriam Mariela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Pierantozzi, Pierluigi. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Juan; Argentina.Fil: Pierantozzi, Pierluigi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Stanzione, Vitale. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems of the Mediterranean; ItaliaFil: Mastio, Valerio. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems of the Mediterranean; ItaliaFil: Zaher, Hayat. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). Centre Régional de la Recherche Agronomique; MarruecosFil: El Antari, Abderraouf. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). Centre Régional de la Recherche Agronomique; MarruecosFil: Ayoub, Salam. National Agricultural Research Center (NARC); JordaniaFil: Dandachi, Faten. Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI); LíbanoFil: Youssef, Hiyam. Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI); LíbanoFil: Aggelou, Nikolas. Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICh). Department of Horticultural Genetics and Biotechnology; GreciaFil: Contreras Valetín, Ana Cibeles. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Juan; Argentina.Fil: Contreras Valetín, Ana Cibeles. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Maestri, Damián. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBV); ArgentinaFil: Maestri, Damián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Belaj, Angjelina. Instituto Andaluz de Investigación y Formación Agraria, Pesquera, Alimentaria y de la Producción Ecológica (IFAPA). - Centro Alameda del Obispo; EspañaFil: Bufacchi, Marina. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems of the Mediterranean; ItaliaFil: Baldoni, Luciana. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources; ItaliaFil: León, Lorenzo. Instituto Andaluz de Investigación y Formación Agraria, Pesquera, Alimentaria y de la Producción Ecológica (IFAPA). - Centro Alameda del Obispo; Españ

Diversity assessment of the Lebanese germplasm of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) by morphological and chemical traits

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is one of the oldest edible fruits cultivated in Lebanon but the diversity of its germplasm has not been addressed yet. The present study presents the first assessment of local pomegranates growing in the country. A set of 78 pomegranate local accessions sampled from the main production areas across the country were evaluated by using twenty-eight quantitative and ten qualitative descriptors. A large variability was revealed among accessions based on the traits studied. Principal component analysis showed that male and hermaphrodite flowers, petal width as well as fruit weight, diameter and length, in addition to juice pH and sugar/acid ratio, were the most discriminating traits. Big sized fruits up to 358.6 g were found for Lefani SL67, Lefani ML25 and Mokh El Baghl SL59 accessions while the juiciest fruits were recorded for Mokh El Baghl SL65, Hamod BH41 and Hamod B54 accessions with 75–78%. The PCA bi-plot allowed to differentiate the studied accessions in three main groups based mainly on the juice pH and sugar/acid ratio: the sweet accessions called Helou, the intermediate taste accessions named Lefani and the sour accessions generally designated as Hamod. Although preliminary, the results of this study indicate a significant diversity within the Lebanese pomegranate germplasm that should be further completed by a DNA analysis to understand the genetic structure of this germplasm with respect to conservation and breeding strategies

Challenging Diagnosis of Anomalous Origin of the Right Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery

Anomalous origin of the right coronary artery (RCA) from the pulmonary artery, ARCAPA, is an extremely rare congenital heart disease. Only 200 cases were reported from 1885 to the present. Patients diagnosed with ARCAPA can be either asymptomatic or can experience symptoms, such as heart murmur, dyspnea, or angina, shortly after birth or around 40–60 years of life. Usually, those with isolated ARCAPA are diagnosed later in life compared to those who associate other structural cardiac defects. We report two cases of anomalous origin of the right coronary artery at the level of the pulmonary artery trunk (ARCAPA) that were diagnosed by invasive coronary angiography. Although asymptomatic, general recommendations suggest an early corrective intervention to prevent complications such as myocardial ischemia and cardiac dysfunction, which can lead to sudden cardiac death

In situ evaluation of the fruit and oil characteristics of the main Lebanese olive germplasm

BACKGROUND: Very little information is available on the characteristics of the Lebanese olive germplasm. Therefore, the aim of this work was to evaluate the fruit and oil characteristics of the main Lebanese olive varieties (Aayrouni, Abou chawkeh, Baladi, Del and Soury) from two successive crop seasons (2010-2011). RESULTS: All of the genotypes had medium-high oil content in the fruit, indicating their suitability for oil production; Aayrouni had particularly high values. The variety Abou chawkeh also had a high pulp/pit ratio, which is a very desirable trait in table olives. For all the varieties the values of free fatty acids, peroxide values, absorbances in ultraviolet, fatty acid composition, sterol content and composition and erythrodiol+uvaol content of the oils were within the requirements of the International Olive Council's Trade Standard for extra virgin olive oil. The only exception was for the values of Δ-7-stigmastenol in 2011 in Soury and, especially, in Baladi, which were higher than 0.5%. In some cases, stearic and arachidic acids fluctuated around the maximum values allowed. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study provide a first picture of the main characteristics of olives and oils currently produced in Lebanon