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The recovery of ancient germplasm in\ud tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) has become necessary\ud to limit the wide genetic erosion caused by the\ud employment of modern cultivars. Among germplasm\ud collections, long shelf-life landraces could represent an\ud important source of biodiversity. The present study\ud provides a first set of molecular and phenotypic data on\ud long shelf-life (so called ‘‘da serbo’’ in southern Italy)\ud tomato collection, mainly originated from Sicily\ud together with some landraces from Campania and\ud Apulia. The analysis of fruit traits showed a low intravarietal\ud variation, while exhibiting a quite higher intervarietal\ud variability. Overall, the cultivars have been\ud classified in six fruit shape classes of which flattened\ud and slightly flattened included the 54.76 % of the\ud collection. The principal component analysis (PCA)\ud showed a large cluster in which almost all landraces\ud from Sicily were included. The microsatellite (SSR)\ud analysis confirmed a low intra-varietal variation, and\ud the very low heterozygosity (Ho) revealed a high degree\ud of homozygosity in these landraces. In accordance with\ud limited morphological variability, the values of microsatellite\ud polymorphism (PIC) showed a low genetic\ud variability among these long shelf-life tomato cultivars.\ud Cluster analysis based on 10 polymorphic SSR was not\ud able to distinguish landraces for their different origin,\ud while allowed to classify similar genotypes in four\ud groups. Three groups showed a limited genetic distance\ud while in a fourth largest and genetic variable cluster was\ud included genotypes more selectable for traits of agronomic\ud interest. Overall, the phenotypic and genetic\ud variation allowed us to classify a collection of Sicilian\ud long shelf-life tomato landraces

Biochar from conifers wood was used in soilless culture as growing substrate alternative to peat for ornamental crops. Potted plants of Euphorbia × lomi Rauh cv. ‘Ilaria’ were grown with different mixtures (v:v) of brown peat and biochar in order to evaluate main physical and chemical characteristics of this biomaterial as well as its effect on plant growth, ornamental characteristics and nutrients uptake. Biochar addition to peat increased pH, EC and K content of the growing substrates, as well as air content and bulk density. Biochar content of substrates significantly affected plant growth and biomass partitioning: higher number of shoots and leaves, leaf area and leaf dry weight were recorded in plants grown in 40% peat-60% biochar, with respect to plants grown in 100% peat and secondarily in 100% biochar. Leaf chlorophyll content was higher in plants grown in 60% and 80% biochar, while biomass water use efficiency was higher with 60% biochar. Plant uptake of K and Ca increased as biochar content of the substrates increased. Hence, a growing substrate containing 40% brown peat and 60% conifers wood biochar was identified as the more suitable mixture allowing to have a high-quality production of Euphorbia × lomi potted plants.

No abstract

Leaf methanolic extracts of four wild Rose species (Rosa canina L., R. corymbifera Borkh., R. micrantha Borrer ex Sm and R. sempervirens L.) grown in Sicily were analysed in order to evaluate differences among indigenous roses which could be used such as source of bioactive compounds and natural antioxidants. Leaves were harvested during two different periods (June and October) and their morphological characteristics were described. Leaf content of chlorophylls, total anthocyanins, total flavonoids, total polyphenols (Folin-Ciocalteu method) and antioxidant activity (DPPH method) were determined. Results showed that the contents of chlorophylls and carotenoids were higher in leaves of all species harvested in June than in those harvested in October. On the contrary, total anthocyanins of R. micrantha and R. corymbifera leaves were higher in October. Total polyphenol content was higher in leaves of all species were harvested in October. No difference in total flavonoids content was recorded between the two harvest periods but only among the four species. Antioxidant activity was generally high in leaf extracts of all species in both periods and, particularly, in R. micrantha leaves harvested in June. These outcomes seem to support the assessment that leaves harvested from some Sicilian wild roses may be used as promising source of healthy compounds and that their content varies with the species and harvest period.