Woody Fruit Crops Research Articles

Plant Water Use Efficiency for a Sustainable Agricultural Development

The rising shortage of water resources worldwide in crop-producing regions and the need for irrigation optimisation call for sustainable water savings. That is, the allocation of irrigation water will be an ever-increasing source of pressure because of vast agricultural demands under changing climatic conditions. Consequently, irrigation has to be closely linked with water-use efficiency with the aim of boosting productivity and improving food quality, singularly in those regions where problems of water shortages or collection and delivery are widespread. The present Special Issue (SI) contains 19 original contributions addressing water-use efficiency under challenging topic of sustainable irrigation management to meet water scarcity conditions. These papers cover a wide range of subjects, including (i) interaction mineral nutrition and irrigation in horticultural crops, (ii) sustainable irrigation in woody fruit crops, (iii) medicinal plants, (iv) industrial crops, and (v) others devoted to remote sensing techniques and crop water requirements, genotypes for drought tolerance, and agricultural management platform. The studies have been carried out in both field and laboratory surveys, as well as modelling studies, and a wide range of geographic regions are also covered. The collection of these manuscripts presented in this SI updates and provides a relevant knowledge contribution for efficient saving water resources.

Influence of Climate Change on Metabolism and Biological Characteristics in Perennial Woody Fruit Crops in the Mediterranean Environment

The changes in the state of the climate have a high impact on perennial fruit crops thus threatening food availability. Indeed, climatic factors affect several plant aspects, such as phenological stages, physiological processes, disease-pest frequency, yield, and qualitative composition of the plant tissues and derived products. To mitigate the effects of climatic parameters variability, plants implement several strategies of defense, by changing phenological trends, altering physiology, increasing carbon sequestration, and metabolites synthesis. This review was divided into two sections. The first provides data on climate change in the last years and a general consideration on their impact, mitigation, and resilience in the production of food crops. The second section reviews the consequences of climate change on the industry of two woody fruit crops models (evergreen and deciduous trees). The research focused on, citrus, olive, and loquat as evergreen trees examples; while grape, apple, pear, cherry, apricot, almond, peach, kiwi, fig, and persimmon as deciduous species. Perennial fruit crops originated by a complex of decisions valuable in a long period and involving economic and technical problems that farmers may quickly change in the case of annual crops. However, the low flexibility of woody crops is balanced by resilience in the long-life cycle.

Redesigning irrigated almond and pistachio cultivation: implications of a shift towards sustainable intensification

The global warming is increasing the variability of rainfall and temperature, peculiarly, in arid and semiarid environments worlwide. Alterations in precipitation patterns and evapotranspiration in these areas will provoke an augmentation in the water requirements for crops, therefore, a collapse in the water resources systems is contemplated. This work presents the deficit irrigation as an adaptation tool for water shortage in reducing the vulnerability of woody-fruit crops in the Mediteraean area. In this context, almond (Prunus dulcis Mill.) and pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) are traditional Mediterranean crops well-adapted to rainfed conditions with highly producer potential under irrigation, therefore, both fruit crops are convenient alternative due to its congenital response to water-stress. In general, moderate deficit irrigation technique enables to save about 30% of irrigation water at yield reductions below 20%. That is, the application of deficit irrigation could be recommended especially in those areas where the full water requeriments for crops are not available due to environmental constrains. In addition, the success of deficit irrigation is based on relevant knowledge of crop phenological development and its physiological reaction to water stress. Thus, the implementation of properly redesign of irrigated fruit plantations under climate change is vital, in order to mitigate the impact on yield, increase water-use efficiency, and preserve or improve the production quality.

The origins and evolutionary history of feral apples in southern Canada.

Feral populations of domesticated crops can establish through two nonmutually exclusive pathways: hybridization with native relatives and recruitment of and recombination between known cultivars. The extent and relative importance of these pathways is not known, especially for woody fruit crops. Here, we examined the evolutionary origins of feral populations of Malus domestica (domestic apple) in southern Canada using a population genetic analysis. We characterized genotypes of 578 putative feral apple trees and evaluated them in relation to genotypes of 156 commercial cultivars, 28 non-native, ornamental crabapples and 47 native Malus coronaria trees using 14 microsatellite markers. No feral trees were genetic admixtures between domestic and native Malus; however, a minority of trees were admixed with introduced ornamental Malus. Feral trees and commercial cultivars both occurred in two major genetic groups and seven subgroups distributed throughout all commercial growing regions. A total of 42 cultivars, both heritage and currently grown, occurred in probable parental pairs for feral trees, with nine heritage varieties accounting for 72% of parental assignments. We conclude that feral apples in southern Canada are not products of hybridization with native M.coronaria but we cannot exclude ornamental apple species as contributing to the naturalization process. Nonhybrid feral domestic apples have multiple origins, with a prominent signature of early heritage cultivars. These lineages have spread and coexist throughout Ontario, rather than being derived strictly from local sources.

Constitutive Expression of an Apple FLC3-like Gene Promotes Flowering in Transgenic Blueberry under Nonchilling Conditions.

MADS-box transcription factors FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) and APETALA1 (AP1)/CAULIFLOWER (CAL) have an opposite effect in vernalization-regulated flowering in Arabidopsis. In woody plants, a functional FLC-like gene has not been verified through reverse genetics. To reveal chilling-regulated flowering mechanisms in woody fruit crops, we conducted phylogenetic analysis of the annotated FLC-like proteins of apple and found that these proteins are grouped more closely to Arabidopsis AP1 than the FLC group. An FLC3-like MADS-box gene from columnar apple trees (Malus domestica) (MdFLC3-like) was cloned for functional analysis through a constitutive transgenic expression. The MdFLC3-like shows 88% identity to pear’s FLC-like genes and 82% identity to blueberry’s CAL1 gene (VcCAL1). When constitutively expressed in a highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) cultivar ‘Legacy’, the MdFLC3-like induced expressions of orthologues of three MADS-box genes, including APETALA1, SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1, and CAL1. As a consequence, in contrast to the anticipated late flowering associated with an overexpressed FLC-like, the MdFLC3-like promoted flowering of transgenic blueberry plants under nonchilling conditions where nontransgenic ‘Legacy’ plants could not flower. Thus, the constitutively expressed MdFLC3-like in transgenic blueberries functioned likely as a blueberry’s VcCAL1. The results are anticipated to facilitate future studies for revealing chilling-mediated flowering mechanisms in woody plants.

Agrobacterium-Mediated Transformation of Tree Fruit Crops: Methods, Progress, and Challenges.

Genetic engineering based on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation has been a desirable tool to manipulate single or multiple genes of existing genotypes of woody fruit crops, for which conventional breeding is a difficult and lengthy process due to heterozygosity, sexual incompatibility, juvenility, or a lack of natural sources. To date, successful transformation has been reported for many fruit crops. We review the major progress in genetic transformation of these fruit crops made in the past 5 years, emphasizing reproducible transformation protocols as well as the strategies that have been tested in fruit crops. While direct transformation of scion cultivars was mostly used for fruit quality improvement, biotic and abiotic tolerance, and functional gene analysis, transgrafting on genetically modified (GM) rootstocks showed a potential to produce non-GM fruit products. More recently, genome editing technology has demonstrated a potential for gene(s) manipulation of several fruit crops. However, substantial efforts are still needed to produce plants from gene-edited cells, for which tremendous challenge remains in the context of either cell’s recalcitrance to regeneration or inefficient gene-editing due to their polyploidy. We propose that effective transient transformation and efficient regeneration are the key for future utilization of genome editing technologies for improvement of fruit crops.

Degradation of tetracyclines in manure-amended soil and their uptake by litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.).

The environmental and human health risk posed by veterinary antibiotics is of global concern. Antibiotic uptake by herbal plants has been studied, but little is known about perennial woody fruit crops. Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.), a longevial fruit tree, is routinely fertilized with animal manure and, therefore, may be at risk of antibiotic uptake into its fruits. This study investigated the degradation of chlortetracycline and doxycycline present in manure used to amend orchard soil, and their subsequent assimilation by litchi plant, as affected by manure application rate. The results show that half-lives of chlortetracycline and doxycycline in soil were decreased by increased manure rate, with an average of 27 and 59days, respectively. Chlortetracycline was readily transported to litchi shoots and increased with the growth of litchi plants. Doxycycline predominantly remained in the roots, and underwent growth dilution in the plants. The two tetracyclines could not be detected in fruits from litchi trees when applied with manures, at various rates, over 2years. For litchi, chlortetracycline may pose human health risk through manure application, but doxycycline is unlikely to do so. Long-term field experiments are required to monitor antibiotic accumulation in fruits of perennial fruit trees fertilized with animal manure.

Energy potential of fruit tree pruned biomass in Croatia

The world's most developed countries and the European Union (EU) deem that the renewable energy sources should partly substitute fossil fuels and become a “bridge” to the utilization of other energy sources of the future. This paper will present the possibility of using pruned biomass from fruit cultivars. It will also present the calculation of potential energy from the mentioned raw materials in order to determine the extent of replacement of non-renewable sources with these types of renewable energy. One of the results of the intensive fruit-growing process, in post pruning stage, is large amount of pruned biomass waste. Based on the calculated biomass (kg ha-1) from intensively grown woody fruit crops that are most grown in Croatia (apple, pear, apricots, peach and nectarine, sweet cherry, sour cherry, prune, walnut, hazelnut, almond, fig, grapevine, and olive) and the analysis of combustible (carbon 45.55-49.28%, hydrogen 5.91-6.83%, and sulphur 0.18-0.21%) and non-combustible matters (oxygen 43.34-46.6%, nitrogen 0.54-1.05%, moisture 3.65-8.83%, ashes 1.52-5.39%) with impact of lowering the biomass heating value (15.602-17.727 MJ kg-1), the energy potential of the pruned fruit biomass is calculated at 4.21 PJ.

Extraction of low molecular weight RNA from Citrus trifolita tissues for microRNA Northern blotting and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT- PCR)

The study of microRNA (miRNA), a component of low molecular weight RNA (LMW RNA), has received increasing attention in recent years. A critical prerequisite in miRNA studies is acquisition of high quality LMW RNA. LMW RNA is generally obtained from total RNA or from total nucleic acids solutions. Most traditional methods for LMW RNA isolation involve many steps and chemical reagents which upon degradation may negatively affect results. We employed a simple and quick method involving trizol for total RNA extraction from citrus tissues, then generation of LMW RNA using 4M LiCl, which have been successfully utilized in studies in our laboratory. Compared with traditional methods, this method is less expensive and produced high RNA yields while avoiding the use of phenol or other toxic reagents. In addition, the entire procedure can be completed within 4 hours with many samples being processed simultaneously. Therefore, this is a practical and efficient method for LMW RNA extraction from woody fruit crops containing high levels of polysaccharide and polyphenolics. Using the extracted LMW RNA, miRNAs were successfully detected and characterized by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Northern blotting. Keywords: Citrus, low molecular weight RNA, trizol reagent, 4 M LiCl, microRNAs

An efficient protocol for genomic DNA extraction fromCitrus species

We describe a simple and efficient method for genomic DNA extraction from woody fruit crops containing high polysaccharide levels. This method involves a modified CTAB or SDS procedure employing a purification step to remove polysaccharides by using water-saturated ether and 1.25 M NaCl. Precipitation with an equal volume of isopropanol caused a DNA pellet to form. After being washed with 70% ethyl alcohol, the pellet easily dissolved in TE buffer. Using this method, DNA was extracted from samples of more than 1000Citrus spp., including young leaves, old leaves, frosted old leaves, withered old leaves, and callus lines. The average yield of DNA ranged from 50–500 μg/g of sample. DNA was suitable for PCR and RFLP analyses and long-term storage. Recently, the procedure was used to isolate DNA from withered old leaves of more than 20 tropical and subtropical fruit crops.

Development and application of molecular marker linkage maps in woody fruit crops

Development and application of molecular marker linkage maps in woody fruit crops

Development of an efficient protocol for genomic DNA extraction from mango (Mangifera indica)

Abstract. Majumder DAN, Hassan L, Rahim MA, Kabir MA. 2011. Development of an efficient protocol for genomic DNA extraction from mango (Mangifera indica). Nusantara Bioscience 3: 105-111. A simple and efficient method for genomic DNA extraction from woody fruit crops containing high polysaccharide levels has been described here. In the present study, three kinds of plant DNA extraction protocols were studied and the target was to establish the water-saturated ether (WSE) with 1.25 M NaCl method as the most efficient protocol for removing the highly concentrated polysaccharides from genomic DNA of woody fruit crops. This method involves the modified CTAB or SDS procedure employing a purification step to remove polysaccharides using the WSE method. Precipitation with an equal volume of isopropanol caused a DNA pellet to form. After being washed with 70% ethyl alcohol, the pellet became easily dissolved in TE buffer. Using these three methods, DNA was extracted from samples of 60 mango genotypes, including young, mature, old, frosted old and withered old leaves. Compared with the three studied DNA extraction protocols of mango, it was found that the WSE method with NaCl had the highest value of average percentage (85.44%) in DNA content of the mango genotypes. The average yield of DNA ranged from 5.05 µg/µL to11.28 µg/µL. DNA was suitable for PCR and RAPD analyses and long-term storage for further use.