Diversity in Morphometric, Pomological, and Fruit-Quality Traits of Apricot (Prunus armeniaca) Traditional Varieties: Implications for Landrace Differentiation at Regional Scale

Abstract

Traditional crop varieties are receiving increasing attention in sustainable agriculture, conservation genetics, and plant science because they offer significant and largely unexplored diversity. The DNA profiling of landraces is being applied to numerous crops, yet a detailed knowledge of morphological diversity is often needed to increase the efficiency of both the conservation and exploitation of local germplasm. In this work, morphological, pomological, and fruit-quality traits (16 qualitative and 16 quantitative) were collected from 44 traditional apricot landraces cultivated in Campania, the Italian region with the highest number of traditional varieties. The aim was to assess varietal diversity and to highlight possible trends and phenotypes that may have driven the morphological differentiation. All traits were polymorphic, and each variety had a distinctive phenotype. The qualitative and quantitative traits provided different classifications of the varieties. Nonetheless, the Factorial Analysis of Mixed data indicated that, for both categories of variables, the fruit traits were the most influential for landrace classification. Interestingly, some easily discernible color phenotypes of the fruits mostly contributed to the discrimination of the analyzed apricot germplasm. We conclude that these specific, commercially relevant features of the fruit were important drivers of the differentiation of the cultivated apricot material at regional scale.

Genetic Diversity and Relationships among Indian Jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) Cultivars Using Morphometric Characteristics, matK Barcoding, and ISSR Markers

“…These results accord with the earlier findings of Obeed et al [45] and Abdel-Sattar et al [8], who reported that the morphological and chemical characteristics of Indian jujube fruit vary greatly amongst the particular cultivars planted in Saudi Arabia. Morphometric features are important for cultivar characterization because they are technically simple, applicable in a variety of cultural contexts, and easily translatable into information that stakeholders can understand [16,46]. Different physical properties and geometric attributes, such as fruit length (L), fruit polar diameter (D1), fruit equatorial diameter, fruit weight stone weight, pulp weight, and fruit diameter, in Indian jujube cultivars showed substantial similarities and dissimilarities among different cultivars.…”

“…Different fruit morphometric properties, such as perpendicular axes, color, and texture features are frequently taken into account during Indian jujube classification and identification [8,[13][14][15]. However, some Ziziphus plants almost do not prominently display minute morphological variations due to some adaptive and/or commercially related forces, linguistic issues in folk taxonomy, or inconsistency in ethnobotanical nomenclature [16]. We therefore urgently need quick, accurate, and on-hand identification.…”

Morphological and Genetic Clonal Diversity within the ‘Greco Bianco’ Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) Variety

“…Likewise, also the relationship between the morphological and each of the two molecular classifications was very low and not significant. The literature on agamically propagated fruit trees reports usually low or non-significant correlations between DNA-based and morphological classifications [ 22 , 47 , 48 , 49 ]. This is typically explained by the fact that the employed marker systems sampled a different kind of mostly uncorrelated diversity.…”

Biochemical and Nutraceutical Characterization of Different Accessions of the Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.)

“…The most important area for apricot cultivation lies around Mount Vesuvius, in the Campania region, with a production of approximately 40%. [4]. Vesuvian apricots have superior qualitative characteristics that make them well suited for processing and as ingredients in traditional confectioneries and pastries [4].…”

“…[4]. Vesuvian apricots have superior qualitative characteristics that make them well suited for processing and as ingredients in traditional confectioneries and pastries [4]. The remaining apricot fruit production is distributed to local markets, as Vesuvian apricots become marketable later than fruit imported from other countries.…”