THE ROLE OF TRADITIONAL VARIETIES OF TOMATO AS SOURCES OF NUTRIOTIONAL COMPOUNDS

a b s t r a c tThe genotypic potential for high l-ascorbic acid content of 15 accessions of S. lycopersicon and S. pimpinellifolium has been evaluated in three environments, including open-air and glasshouse cultivation and two localities. The environmental effect on l-ascorbic acid accumulation was highly genotype-dependant and the variance ascribed to the G×E environment was similar in importance to that ascribed to genotype. The variation found within accession might be ascribed to microenvironmental effects associated with temperature changes and oxidative stress or population variability. Several accessions with high genotypic values ( +G) have been identified. Among them, accession PI365959 of S. pimpinellifolium, showed a genotypic value of 293.8 mg kg −1 , statistically significant higher (P < 0.05) than the genotypic potential of controls reported to have high l-ascorbic content (CDP4777, 115.0 mg kg −1 ). It also showed positive G×E interactions, with a relatively high stability. Accession LA1423 of S. lycopersicon var. cerasiforme, despite being less stable, had also high genotypic values for l-ascorbic acid accumulation (197.4 mg kg −1 ). This germplasm will be of great interest for the development of new tomato cultivars targeted to added-value markets appreciating nutritional or functional quality. The close relationship of the selected material with the cultivated tomato will enable an efficient and rapid exploitation of their potential in breeding programmes.

Despite the importance of traditional varieties of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)as sources of variation in breeding programs and varieties targeted to high-price quality markets that value their exceptional organoleptic quality, little is known regarding the structure of these materials at the morphological level. In this study, a collection of 166 populations (137 of them during two years) of traditional varieties of tomato from the east coast of Spain has been characterized using 41 descriptors. The characterization revealed a considerable variation. The segregation observed in several populations (28 %) suggests that apart from the configuration as population varieties, the high variation present in these landraces may be partially due to possible seed mixing and spontaneous cross-pollination. Only nine fruit descriptors were required to represent the variation present in the collection analyzed. It seems that after spontaneous crosspollinations, farmers applied strong selection to a small number of traits, though even in these traits a high level of variation is maintained. The variation observed may hinder clear recognition by the consumer, an attribute required for the consolidation of quality markets. Additionally, a registry of these materials as conservation varieties would be complicated considering the actual levels of variation. Therefore, a varietal depuration would be interesting in order to promote in situ conservation of these resources. Finally, the high levels of variation in the intra-varietal scale may justify the collection and maintenance of more populations of the same variety as the risk of conserving duplicates would not be so high.Keywords: Solanum lycopersicum, genetic resources, breeding, genebank collection (e.g. the name of the town or county) or to its use (e.g. salad tomato) only. It is therefore necessary to clarify if these designations correspond to specific varieties or if they can be ascribed to a certain existing variety and the general designation in passport data corresponds to inaccurate recording during collections.Several efforts have been made to characterize Spanish materials (Alonso et al., 2009; García-Martínez et al., 2006Casals et al., 2011Casals et al., , 2012 CebollaCornejo et al., 2013). However few of them analyze morphological data, and either they are usually restricted to one or few varieties, or the varieties analyzed have in general ambiguous designations (e.g. Gragera-Facundo et al., 2011).In this context, this study mainly aims to continue previous efforts (Cebolla-Cornejo et al., 2013) to characterize a different set of populations and increase the number of varieties. This considerably large set of populations belonging to traditional varieties typical of the East Coast of Spain will enable a further study that will focus on how they are structured. This information would be of great value in the promotion of on-farm conservation of this diversity as well as to the provision of new information for the management of germplasm banks. Mater...

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Capsicum peppers (Capsicum spp.), especially C. annuum L., are one of the most important vegetables and spices in the world and their fruits are used in a range of food dishes, to provide aroma and flavor. Pungency has been largely studied, while studies on the volatile fraction are more recent and less diverse. A considerable varietal diversity among peppers has been reported in terms of the aroma quality and the qualitative and quantitative variation in the volatile fraction, particularly in fully ripe fruits, which encompass most diverse food applications and aroma profiles. Thus, a study was designed to study the inheritance of the volatile fractions in peppers and to determine if they can be improved by breeding strategies. The volatile fraction of 175 samples of ripe fruits from a diverse collection of peppers, encompassing a range of varietal types and aroma qualities, were isolated by headspace-solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). A diverse profile of volatiles including terpenoids, esters, alkanes, and several aldehydes and alcohols, was found among the evaluated accessions. Our findings indicated that, in most cases, hybridization provided higher amounts of total volatiles and a more complex composition, particularly in the pericarp. In addition, the volatile fraction can be inherited from the parents to the offspring, as most individual volatiles in hybrids, especially major volatiles, were present in at least one of the parents, following intermediate (levels between parents) or transgressive (levels higher than the best parent) inheritance. De novo compounds (present in the hybrid, absent in the parents) were found in many samples. Comparatively, placental tissues had higher total and individual volatile levels compared with the pericarp in most parent accessions and hybrids, which must be considered by breeders if this part of the fruit is included in food formulations. By combining parent lines with complementary volatile fractions, hybridization offers a feasible method to improve the volatile composition of ripe fruits in Capsicum peppers.