Search Results (14)

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a globally significant crop with a well-documented domestication history and a critical role in food security. Here, we present the first whole-genome genetic characterization of Cypriot common bean landraces and heirloom varieties, originated from remote mountainous areas, using DArTseq-based SNP genotyping. A total of 13,215 high-quality SNPs were investigated from 50 genotypes, indicating a moderate linkage disequilibrium, high incidences of private and fixed alleles, and an overall low heterozygosity. The comparison of varieties indicated that dry and green bean varieties consisted of genetically distinct clusters, reinforced by phylogenetic and Bayesian structure analyses. A few of the varieties, such as “Gliastro” and “Stringless Blue Lake,” demonstrated an intense genetic diversity and/or inbreeding, whereas others showed evidence of admixture. The outcomes highlight the unique genetic make-up of the Cypriot bean germplasm and its worth as a tool for breeding, conservation, and upcoming genomic-assisted improvement programs. Full article

Snake melons have been present for a millennia, despite their present limited use, and host a large degree of genetic and phytochemical diversity. The current study evaluated the genomic and biochemical diversity of Snake melon landraces of Cypriot and Greek origin, revealing significant degrees of genetic and mineral/phytochemical variation. Landraces showed a high potential for improving nutritional quality and a possible contribution to stress resilience. Whole-genome analysis highlighted a high degree of SNPs, InDels, SVs, and CNVs, especially in genotypes like Atzouri and ARI001024, indicating that functional variants influence phenotypic/chemical diversity. Biochemical profiling demonstrated great differences in the concentration of pigments, antioxidants, and minerals, with ARI001024 and ARI00894 exhibiting elevated levels of nutrients/phytochemicals. Hierarchical clustering and PCA analyses established relationships among traits, and reinforced the concept that these genotypes may offer valuable genetic resources for breeding programs under climate-resilient production schemes, emphasizing the need for conservation and further genomic characterization. Full article

The sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is subject to the progressive disappearance of its traditional chestnut groves. In the northern part of Italy, where distribution of the sweet chestnut is fragmented, many local varieties continue to be identified mostly by oral tradition. We characterised by SSRs eleven historically recognised varieties of sweet chestnut in the area surrounding Lake Como, with the goal of giving a genetic basis to the traditional classification. We performed classical analysis about differentiation and used Bayesian approaches to detect population structure and to reconstruct demography. The results revealed that historical and genetic classifications are loosely linked when chestnut fruits are just “castagne”, that is, normal fruits, but increasingly overlap where “marroni” (the most prized fruits) are concerned. Bayesian classification allowed us to identify a homogeneous gene cluster not recognised in the traditional assessment of the varieties and to reconstruct possible routes used for the propagation of sweet chestnut. We also reconstructed ancestral relationships between the different gene pools involved and dated ancestral lineages whose results fit with palynological data. We suggest that conservation strategies based on a genetic evaluation of the resource should also rely on traditional cultural heritage, which could reveal new sources of germplasm. Full article

Global levels of biodiversity and dietary diversity are decreasing, leading to food and nutrition insecurity. This is partially due to the homogenization of the global food supply with commodity crops. The reintroduction or introduction of neglected and underutilized species, minor, forgotten, and indigenous crops and landrace varieties to the wider food systems and further diversification have been outlined as the future strategies for tackling the above by the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization in their policy frameworks. Most of the above species/crops are marginalized and only used across local food systems and in research. With over 15,000 different seed banks and repositories worldwide, information transparency and communication are crucial for database searching and their effective utilization. Much confusion persists around the true nature of those plants, and this prohibits the efficient utilization of their economic potential. A linguistic corpus search and a systematic literature review were conducted using the six most popular collocates to the above terms, which were as follows: ancient, heirloom, heritage, traditional, orphan, and the more distinct term ‘landrace’. The results were interpreted using the Critical Discourse Analysis method. The definitions’ findings show that heirloom, heritage, and ancient are mainly used in the United Kingdom and USA, where they are used to describe ‘naturalized’ and ‘indigenized’ or ‘indigenous’ food crops with a strong affiliation to ‘family’ and the ‘act of passing seeds down from generation to generation’. Orphan crops, on the other hand, are often described as being ‘overlooked’ by growers and ‘underfunded’ by researchers. Landrace is most strongly affiliated with ‘locality’, ‘biocultural diversity’, and ‘indigenous’, and with genomics literature, where the characteristics are often discussed in the context of genetics and population biology. Contextualizing, most of the terms were found to be ‘arbitrary’ and ‘undefinable’ due to their continuing evolution in the socially accepted form of language, perhaps apart from landrace. The review has retrieved 58 definitions for the mentioned 6 terms, together with the primary key terms creating a tool to facilitate a better inter-sector communication and aid in policy. Full article

There is a vast diversity of historic heirloom apple varieties around the world. Apples of various colors, sizes, tastes, uses, and ripening times can be found. In Slovakia, there has recently been a rising interest to preserve these apple varieties. The life of a tree is partially influenced by the growing conditions of the environment where the tree grows. In this paper, macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of four selected heirloom apple trees growing in Slovakia’s Štiavnické vrchy were observed. Studying the microscopic structure of historical heirloom apple trees wood could reveal specific cell arrangements of tissues. This could help to specify the individual varieties. Full article

Juglans regia (L.) is cultivated worldwide for its nutrient-rich nuts. In Italy, despite the growing demand, walnut cultivation has gone through a strong decline in recent decades, which led to Italy being among the top five net importing countries. To promote the development of local high-quality Italian walnut production, we devised a multidisciplinary project to highlight the distinctive traits of three varieties grown in the mountainous region Trentino (northeast of Italy): the heirloom ‘Bleggiana’, a second local accession called local Franquette and the French cultivar ‘Lara’, recently introduced in the local production to increase yield. The genetic characterization confirmed the uniqueness of ‘Bleggiana’ and revealed local Franquette as a newly described autochthonous variety, thus named ‘Blegette’. The metabolic profiles highlighted a valuable nutritional composition of the local varieties, richer in polyphenols and with a lower ω-6/ω-3 ratio than the commercial ‘Lara’. ‘Blegette’ obtained the highest preference scores from consumers for both the visual aspect and tasting; however, the volatile organic compound profiles did not discriminate among the characterized cultivars. The described local varieties represent an interesting reservoir of walnut genetic diversity and quality properties, which deserve future investigation on agronomically useful traits (e.g., local adaptation and water usage) for a high-quality and sustainable production. Full article

Cis- isomers of lycopene have been reported to be more bioavailable than all-trans-lycopene. ‘Moonglow’(MG) is an orange heirloom tomato variety with >90% of its lycopene in the more bioavailable cis-isomeric form, compared to ‘Red’ (R) tomatoes with all trans- lycopene. Oestrogen deficiency after menopause changes the body composition and gut microbes. This study evaluated the plasma and liver lycopene concentration and the effect of lycopene on body composition and gut microbiota in female ovariectomised rats following ‘Red’ versus ‘Moonglow’ tomato feeding. Female Sprague Dawley rats underwent no surgery (Sham) or ovariectomy (OVX) surgery at the age of 16 weeks to induce a menopause-like status. Sham-C and OVX-C groups received a daily dietary supplement containing no tomato powder; ‘post-R’ and ‘post-MG’ received dietary supplements containing tomato powder for 8 weeks post-surgery; ‘pre-R’ and ‘pre-MG’ received dietary supplements containing tomato powder for 8 weeks prior to and post-surgery (N = 12–15/group). Each dietary tomato supplement contained 0.172 mg of lycopene (~0.35 mg lycopene/kg body weight/day). After 8 or 16 weeks of tomato supplementation, the mean plasma lycopene concentrations in ‘pre-MG’ and ‘post-MG’ groups were ~8X higher than ‘pre-R’ and ‘post-R’ groups, but liver lycopene stores did not differ between the groups. Caecal pH ranged from 6.79 ± 0.08 to 7.05 ± 0.11 and was not significantly different among the groups. Ovariectomy reduced the abundance of gut bacteria compared to Sham-C. Both ‘pre-MG’ and ‘post-MG’ restored the numbers of Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Bacteroides and E. coli, whereas the ‘post-R’ group only increased Lactobacillus. A significant increase in fat mass and reduction in lean mass was found in all OVX rats compared to Sham-C after 16 weeks, and individual fat pad weights strongly correlated with total body fat, with no benefit from lycopene supplementation. These results demonstrate that ‘Moonglow’ cis- lycopene is significantly more bioavailable than ‘Red’ trans- lycopene and that ‘Moonglow’ tomato has a greater prebiotic-like effect. Full article

Agrobiodiversity is the foundation of our ecosystems and food supply. However, agrobiodiversity is declining rapidly. A prominent strategy to safeguard endangered varieties, an important component of agrobiodiversity, is their cultivation and preservation in their natural environments. In order to make the cultivation of these varieties attractive to farmers, a functioning value chain and communication concepts for these goods have to be developed. Using heirloom vegetable varieties as an example, we examine existing communication approaches for endangered varieties and evaluate their suitability to transport their added value to organic consumers. We furthermore examine organic consumers’ purchasing motives to buy heirloom vegetable varieties. We collected data in three focus group discussions in Berlin (Germany) in 2018. This exploratory study shows that existing communication approaches for heirloom vegetable varieties strongly appeal to altruistic and biospheric purchasing motives. However, our results suggest that egoistic and hedonic purchasing motives are just as important to organic consumers. Hence, existing communication approaches for heirloom vegetable varieties, including the “Red List of Endangered Local Crops”, are not entirely suitable to communicate the added value of biodiversity-enhancing products to consumers. Based on these results, we will develop a holistic communication scheme for heirloom vegetable varieties for organic supermarkets and further distribution channels in Germany. Full article

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is considered one of the most valuable and versatile vegetable crops globally and also serves as a significant model species for fruit developmental biology. Despite its significance, a severe genetic bottleneck and intense selection of genotypes with specific qualitative traits have resulted in the prevalence of a restricted number of (geno)types, also causing a lack of diversity across widespread cultivated types. As a result, the re-emergence of landraces as well as traditional and heirloom varieties is largely acknowledged as a countermeasure to restore phenotypic, phytochemical and genetic diversity while enriching the aroma/taste tomato palette. On those grounds, the Cypriot tomato germplasm was assessed and characterized. Ten landrace accessions were evaluated under greenhouse conditions and data were collected for 24 IPGRI discrete phenotypic traits. Grouping of accessions largely reflected the fruit shape and size; four different fruit types were recorded across accessions (flattened, heart-shaped, rounded and highly rounded). Moreover, a single run panel consisting of ten SSRs was developed and applied in order to genetically characterize 190 Cypriot genotypes and foreign heirloom varieties. Based on genetic indexes it was established that tomato landraces have a rather low level of heterogeneity and genetic variation. Finally, mineral and phytochemical analyses were conducted in order to estimate biochemical attributes (total phenolics, ascorbic acid, lycopene, β-carotene, total soluble content, titratable acidity) across genotypes; thus, ascertaining that the Cypriot panel has a high nutritional value. Due to the thermo-drought adaptation and tolerance of these genotypes, the current study serves as a roadmap for future breeding efforts in order to incorporate desirable traits or develop novel tomato lines combining resilience and alimentary value. Full article

Heirloom tomato varieties are in demand by consumers due to high antioxidant levels. However, these varieties are difficult to produce and are prone to disease. To overcome these problems, heirloom tomatoes may be cultivated in hydroponic systems and grafted onto disease-resistant rootstocks. However, it is unknown if the antioxidant content and capacity are affected by grafting. In this study, heirloom (Black Krim and Green Zebra) and standard (Big Beef) varieties were grafted onto wild type (WT) or productive rootstocks (Arnold and Supernatural). The tomatoes were harvested at maturity, freeze-dried, and ground into a powder. Lycopene was extracted using hexane, and the content was determined spectrophotometrically at 503 nm. The antioxidant capacity of methanol extracts was evaluated by the 2,2′-azino-di[3-ethylbenzthiazoline sulfonsyr]sulphonic acid (ABTS) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays, whereas the phenolic content was determined using the Folin–Ciocalteu assay. Interestingly, the grafting of Big Beef and Green Zebra onto Supernatural rootstock resulted in an increased antioxidant capacity, as determined by the DPPH assay. Moreover, the phenolic content was changed for Big Beef grafted onto Arnold, and Big Beef and Green Zebra grafted onto Supernatural. Taken together, these results indicate that certain combinations of standard and heirloom tomato varieties and productive rootstocks may influence the antioxidant capacity and phenolic content. These results may be used to guide producers when choosing rootstocks for cultivating hydroponic tomatoes. Full article

Romania has a wide variety of local landraces and heirloom genotypes. Our study aims to assess the performance of twenty halotolerant tomato landraces, collected from areas with medium and high levels of soil salinity, in terms ofthe accumulation of antioxidant compounds in fruits and to cluster them according to their nutraceutical components. The tomatoes used in the study were harvested once they had attained full ripeness and then analyzed for lycopene (Lyc), ascorbic acid content (AsA), total phenolic content (TPC), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). The results revealed major differences between genotypes in terms of nutraceutical values. According to principal component analysis, the tomato landraces were grouped into five clusters, characterized by different proportions of compounds with antioxidant activity. The high/moderate nutritional values of Lyc, TAC, TPC, and AsA were obtained from varieties taken from local lands with high soil salinity, over 6.5 dS m⁻¹. These findings support the idea that metabolites and secondary antioxidants are involved in the process of stress adaptation, thereby increasing salinity tolerance in tomatoes. Our results show that there are tomato landraces with a tolerance of adaptation to conditions of high soil salinity and provide information on their ability to synthesize molecules with antioxidant functions that protect plants against oxidative damage. Full article

Cultivated apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) is a major crop of economic importance, both globally and regionally. It is currently, and was also in the past, the main commercial fruit in the northern European countries. In Finland, apple trees are grown on the frontier of their northern growing limits. Because of these limits, growing an apple tree from a seed was discovered in practice to be the most appropriate method to get trees that bear fruit for people in the north. This created a unique culturally and genetically rich native germplasm to meet the various needs of apple growers and consumers from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. The preservation, study and use of this genetic heritage falls within the mandate of the Finnish National Genetic Resources Program. The first national apple clonal collection for germplasm preservation was reorganized from the collections of apple breeders. The need to evaluate the accessions, both in this collection and possible missing ones, to meet the program strategy lead us to evaluate the Finnish apple heritage that is still available in situ in gardens. In this article we use multiple-approach methodologies and datasets to gain well-described, proof-rich samples for the trueness-to-type analysis of old heirloom apple varieties. The approach includes a combination of socio-historic, pomological and genotyping methods and datasets that are all valued as equally important. The main finding was that in addition to the pomological, molecular and genetic evaluation of ex situ apple collections, an extensive historical data and socio-economic conditions research are essential to perform good characterization of accessions. After implementing the results in re-creating the Finnish national apple germplasm collection, the number of Finnish local varieties was more than doubled from 38 accessions to 97. Full article

This two-year study compared nine northwest Washington dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) heirloom (H) varieties with 11 standard (S) commercial varieties in matching market classes using organic, non-irrigated production practices. Heirloom and standard varieties differed in days to harvest (DTH) (110 DTH and 113 DTH, respectively), while both days to harvest (113 DTH and 110 DTH) and yield (2268 kg∙ha⁻¹ and 1625 kg∙ha⁻¹) were greater in 2013 than in 2014. Varieties with the shortest DTH both years were “Bale” (H), “Coco” (H), “Decker” (H), “Ireland Creek Annie” (H and S), “Kring” (H) and “Rockwell” (H). Varieties that had the highest yield both years were “Eclipse” (S), “Lariat” (S) and “Youngquist Brown” (H). Only “Eclipse” (S) had the shortest cooking time both years, while “Rockwell” (H), “Silver Cloud” (S) and “Soldier” (S) had short cooking times in 2013, and “Orca” (S) and “Youngquist Brown” (H) had short cooking time in 2014. Varieties with the highest protein content both years were “Calypso” (S), “Coco” (S) and “Silver Cloud” (S). Further research should investigate yield of early maturing standard varieties, with a focus on color-patterned beans that are attractive for local markets. Full article

Three-dimensional scanning serves a large variety of uses. It can be utilized to generate objects for, after possible modification, 3D printing. It can facilitate reverse engineering, replication of artifacts to allow interaction without risking cultural heirlooms and the creation of replacement bespoke parts. The technology can also be used to capture imagery for creating holograms, it can support applications requiring human body imaging (e.g., medical, sports performance, garment creation, security) and it can be used to import real-world objects into computer games and other simulations. This paper presents the design of a 3D scanner that was designed and constructed at the University of North Dakota to create 3D models for printing and numerous other uses. It discusses multiple prospective uses for the unit and technology. It also provides an overview of future directions of the project, such as 3D video capture. Full article