Fruit Quality Traits and Genotypic Characterization in a Pomegranate Ex Situ (Punica granatum L.) Collection in Greece

Abstract

Pomegranate is one of the oldest known fruit crops, well adapted to hot and dry areas and successfully grown in Mediterranean countries. During the last two decades, numerous publications have revealed the traditionally known associations between pomegranate consumption and health benefits, which led to increased demand by consumers and expansion in cultivation areas. Pomegranate is well adapted to areas with diverse pedoclimatic conditions and local cultivars could provide an essential source of genes for breeding. In this study, fruit phenotypic and genetic variability, and relationships, were studied in 26 Greek and foreign pomegranate cultivars/accessions grown in an ex situ collection located in Naoussa Greece, using Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) and Start Codon Targeted (SCoT) molecular markers. Results from the principal component analysis made on fruit phenotypic characters revealed five components that accounted for 74.8% of the total variance, the first being related to skin color parameters and the second to juice antioxidant contents and aril color. Clustering from phenotypic data allocated individuals into four clusters. A total of 184 bands were generated for all markers applied across the 26 pomegranate cultivars/accessions, with an average of 77 bands per ISSR markers and 82 bands for SCoT markers. Low variability in the phenotypic and genotypic level was indicated; nevertheless, results from the association study between phenotypic traits and molecular markers that were obtained using Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) could prove valuable for marker-assisted breeding programs, especially from SCoT markers that were found to be strongly or averagely associated with the morphological traits and chemical components.

First assessment of Iranian pomegranate germplasm using targeted metabolites and morphological traits to develop the core collection and modeling of the current and future spatial distribution under climate change conditions

“…Morphological traits of 117 pomegranate genotypes in Yazd province, Iran showed that the fruit bottom shape and the fruit shape had high diversity based on the Shannon index [30]. Karapetsi et al [66] also reported that fruit weight had a high variability (CV=30.5%) among the studied pomegranate genotypes. In the present study, the attribute of JA was also affected by genotype, which corresponds with the results of Tehranifar et al [35] and Hamid et al [67] who also reported the aril juice percentage varied between cultivars.…”

Optimal Decision-Making Model of Agricultural Product Information Based on Three-Way Decision Theory

“…With the development of society, people are capable of more conveniently using computer methods, or real-time physical and chemical testing, to obtain attribute values of agricultural products. At the same time, it is imperative to use such numbers to evaluate the quality of agricultural products reasonably and efficiently [40][41][42][43][44]. In this paper, according to the combination of three-way decision-making and intuitive fuzzy evaluation, the calculation process of transforming a three-way decision into a two-way decision is significantly simplified, and the optimal treatment of decision-making behavior is realized.…”

First assessment of Iranian pomegranate germplasm using targeted metabolites and morphological traits to develop the core collection and modeling of the current and future spatial distribution under climate change conditions

“…Morphological traits of 117 pomegranate genotypes in Yazd province, Iran showed that the fruit bottom shape and the fruit shape had high diversity based on the Shannon index [30]. Karapetsi et al [66] also reported that fruit weight had a high variability (CV = 30.5%) among the studied pomegranate genotypes. In the present study, the attribute of JA was also affected by genotype, which corresponds with the results of Tehranifar et al [35] and Hmid et al [67] who also reported the aril juice percentage varied between cultivars.…”