Delfina de Jesús Pérez-López

Characterization of wild plum (Ximenia americana L. var. americana; Olacaceae) fruit growing at Tepexi de Rodríguez, Puebla, Mexico

As a country, Mexico presents an especially wide range of fruit germplasm diversity. Tepexi de Rodríguez, Puebla, Mexico, belongs to The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley, which is an arid zone recognized to have a flora diversity. In that place, wild plum (Ximenia americana L. var. americana; Olacaceae), locally named “tihuixocote” grows mainly in backyards, the fruit of this species is appreciated by native people due to its taste, which is reported to be a mixture between sweet and sour. Fruit from 15 trees were characterized by measuring bio-physical and bio-chemical parameters, including weight, diameter (equatorial and polar), relationship equatorial/polar diameters, total sugar, soluble solid content and phenolic compounds. The results of this study indicate variability for these various wild plum fruit characteristics among trees growing in a reduced territorial space.

Association of Heilipus lauri Boheman and Conotrachelus perseae Barber (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on Avocado in Mexico

Mexico is the world’s primary producer and exporter of avocado (Persea americana Mill.). During 2010, avocado was grown on 123,000 ha (SIAP 2012) that produced 1.1 million tons of fruit valued at

Genetic variability analysis of faba bean accessions using Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers

900 million. Eighty percent of exports of this fruit is to the USA (Morales 2012), but quarantined pests might limit these exports. These pests include the weevils Heilipus lauri Boheman (Fig. 1),Copturus aguacataeKissinger,Conotrachelus perseae Barber (Fig. 2), and Conotrachelus aguacatae Barber, and the avocado seed moth, Stenoma catenifer Walsingham (Peterson and Orden 2008). To date, H. lauri and S. catenifer are not recorded in Michoacán, the main avocado-producing state in Mexico, and C. perseae is officially under control in Michoacán (Salazar-García et al. 2004). Associations of avocado weevils in the same ecological area have not been reported in Mexico. Therefore, we inspected new sites outside of Michoacán to determine any associative presence of H. lauri and C. perseae attacking avocado fruits in the same agroecosystem. Twenty-five fruits from six avocado trees of cultivar Hass and twelve fruits from four trees of Persea americana var. drymifolia or “avocado criollo” showing symptoms similar to those produced by avocado weevils were collected on 2 August 2009 in five backyard orchards in San Juan Acaxochitlan, Hidalgo, Mexico (20°11′37′′N, 98°08′25′′W, 1,670 m elevation). On 14 October 2009, three backyard orchards were sampled and 20 fruits from four Hass avocado trees and 18 fruits from two Fuerte variety avocado trees showing similar symptoms to the fruits collected in Hidalgo were collected in Meyuca, Coatepec Harinas, Estado de México (18°51′18′′N, 99°46′59′′W, 1,992 m elevation). Collected fruits were classified according to shape of perforation (Figs. 3, 4), placed in plastic containers (30 × 23 × 9 cm) and incubated at 26±1°C and 50% RH. Twelve days later, the fruits were dissected. The seed was removed to determine presence of any larvae which were placed into a new fruit (Hass) to continue development. Two kinds of curculionid larvae were found in the fruits and identified to genus level by using the keys in García-Arellano (1975). The weevil larvae were determined as Heilipus Germar sp. in Hass avocado fruits only and as Conotrachelus Dejean sp. in criollo and Fuerte avocado fruits. Pupation by Heilipus larvae occurred in the seed. Conotrachelus larvae emerged from the fruits, after which they were collected from the containers and placed in glass flasks (10.0 × 3.5 cm) with 9 cm of soil to facilitate pupation. The adult weevils were identified using the keys in Barber (1923) and Whitehead (1979) for Conotrachelus sp. and Barber (1919) and Castañeda et al. (2007) for Heilipus sp. Collected insects were identified as H. lauri (12 specimens: 2♀ from San Juan Acaxochitlan; 4♀ and 6♂ from Meyuca) and C. perseae (17 specimens: 2♂ from San Juan Acaxochitlan; 7♀ and 8♂ from Meyuca). These are new state records for C. perseae in Mexico. All specimens were deposited in the Insectario de la Facultad de Ciencias Agrícolas de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México in Toluca, Mexico. Heilipus lauri was described by Boheman (1845) from specimens collected in Mexico, and two specimens were reported by Champion (1902) from the Sallé collection from Calpulalpan, Tlaxcala, Mexico. It has been reported from Puebla, Morelos, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Guerrero, and Estado de México (Peña 1998; Castañeda et al. 2007) and also from Colombia (Caicedo et al. 2010). There were deep perforations (Fig. 3) in the fruits that we collected; each fruit may sustain one or two larvae. Pupae were formed inside the avocado

Characterization of Vitis cinerea Engelm. ex Millardet fruits from the southern region of the State of Mexico, Mexico

Faba bean crop (Vicia faba L.) is important in Mexico, it is a legume rich in protein and its market price is higher than those of maize and bean; however, in recent years there has been a significant decline in its performance. The aim of this study was to determine the genetic variability and analyze the relationship between 39 faba bean accessions using inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers. Accessions of faba bean were collected according to their best phenotypic characteristics, later they were molecularly characterized. With the obtained band registration, a binary data matrix was built to perform the corresponding statistical analysis. The utilized ISSR markers produced 142 fixed and repeatable bands, of which 134 were polymorphic. The values of resolution power (Rp), polymorphic information content (PIC), and marker index (MI), respectively indicated that primer 848 was the most efficient to analyze genetic variability with values of 12.8, 0.40, and 8.06, respectively, followed by primers 857 and ISSR2M. Genetic distances oscillated between 0.38 and 0.83, and verified the groupings observed in the dendrogram, which indicates high variability at the level of DNA among the analyzed genotypes, observing six defined groups according to UPGMA analysis. In the analysis of main components the registered groupings were determined by the origin of the gathering. The use of ISSR markers was efficient to characterize at the level of DNA the assessed bean accessions, indicating the existence of variability, the identified contrasting accessions can be utilized in genetic improvement programs aimed at solving the needs of the producers.