Alberto Continella

Fruit quality and bioactive compounds relevant to human health of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) cultivars grown in Italy

The fruit quality characteristics, phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacities of 24 sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) cultivars grown on the mountainsides of the Etna volcano (Sicily, Italy) were evaluated. High-performance liquid chromatographic methods were used to identify and quantify sugars, organic acids and phenolics. A total of seven phenolic compounds were characterised as hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives (neochlorogenic acid, p-coumaroylquinic acid and chlorogenic acid) and anthocyanins (cyanidin 3-glucoside, cyanidin 3-rutinoside, pelargonidin 3-rutinoside and peonidin 3-rutinoside). The total anthocyanin content ranged from 6.21 to 94.20mg cyanidin 3-glucoside equivalents/100g fresh weight (FW), while the total phenol content ranged from 84.96 to 162.21mg gallic acid equivalents/100g FW. The oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay indicated that fruit of all genotypes possessed considerable antioxidant activity. The high level of phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of some sweet cherry fruits implied that they might be sources of bioactive compounds that are relevant to human health.

Elucidating the contribution of wild related species on autochthonous pear germplasm: A case study from Mount Etna

The pear (genus Pyrus) is one of the most ancient and widely cultivated tree fruit crops in temperate climates. The Mount Etna area claims a large number of pear varieties differentiated due to a long history of cultivation and environmental variability, making this area particularly suitable for genetic studies. Ninety-five pear individuals were genotyped using the simple sequence repeat (SSR) methodology interrogating both the nuclear (nDNA) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) to combine an investigation of maternal inheritance of chloroplast SSRs (cpSSRs) with the high informativity of nuclear SSRs (nSSRs). The germplasm was selected ad hoc to include wild genotypes, local varieties, and national and international cultivated varieties. The objectives of this study were as follows: (i) estimate the level of differentiation within local varieties; (ii) elucidate the phylogenetic relationships between the cultivated genotypes and wild accessions; and (iii) estimate the potential genetic flow and the relationship among the germplasms in our analysis. Eight nSSRs detected a total of 136 alleles with an average minor allelic frequency and observed heterozygosity of 0.29 and 0.65, respectively, whereas cpSSRs allowed identification of eight haplotypes (S4 Table). These results shed light on the genetic relatedness between Italian varieties and wild genotypes. Among the wild species, compared with P. amygdaliformis, few P. pyraster genotypes exhibited higher genetic similarity to local pear varieties. Our analysis revealed the presence of genetic stratification with a ‘wild’ subpopulation characterizing the genetic makeup of wild species and the international cultivated varieties exhibiting the predominance of the ‘cultivated’ subpopulation.