Publications by authors named "Francesca Taranto"

Two allelic variants of Pp-A3 and Pp-B1 were identified in purple durum wheat. Molecular markers at both loci were developed and validated on an independent panel, offering a breakthrough for wheat improvement. Purple wheats are a class of cereals with pigmented kernels of particular interest for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Significant differences in olive traits were found among regions, and two main cultivars, Kanabisi and Kfari Baladi, were identified based on fruit color and growth habit.
  • * Advanced genetic analyses revealed a high level of genetic diversity and admixture among olive accessions, suggesting important implications for conservation and management efforts for these trees.
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Simultaneous improvement for GY and GPC by using GWAS and GBLUP suggested a significant application in durum wheat breeding. Despite the importance of grain protein concentration (GPC) in determining wheat quality, its negative correlation with grain yield (GY) is still one of the major challenges for breeders. Here, a durum wheat panel of 200 genotypes was evaluated for GY, GPC, and their derived indices (GPD and GYD), under eight different agronomic conditions.

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Article Synopsis
  • Sexual reproduction and spontaneous somatic mutations have led to significant diversity in cultivated grapevine populations, showcasing the importance of natural selections, or "clones," for potential traits that improve grape quality and resilience.
  • This study examines the genetic diversity and structure of 138 grapevine clones from six varieties, utilizing SNP markers to analyze genetic similarities, especially among geographically related populations.
  • Findings highlight around two hundred divergent genetic loci linked to critical traits, emphasizing the need to preserve these traditional grapevines for future breeding and cultivation advancements.
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Durum wheat is a worldwide staple crop cultivated mainly in the Mediterranean basin. Progress in durum wheat breeding requires the exploitation of genetic variation among the gene pool enclosed in landraces, old cultivars and modern cultivars. The aim of this study was to provide a more comprehensive view of the genetic architecture evolution among 123 durum wheat accessions (41 landraces, 41 old cultivars and 41 modern cultivars), grown in replicated randomized complete block in two areas, Metaponto (Basilicata) and Foggia (Apulia), using the Illumina iSelect 15K wheat SNP array and 33 plant and kernel traits including the International Union for the Protection of new Varieties of Plants (UPOV) descriptors.

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In recent years, many efforts have been conducted to dissect the genetic basis of yield and yield components in durum wheat thanks to linkage mapping and genome-wide association studies. In this review, starting from the analysis of the genetic bases that regulate the expression of yield for developing new durum wheat varieties, we have highlighted how, currently, the reductionist approach, i.e.

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Background: Pasta is a worldwide popular Italian food made exclusively of durum wheat. The choice of variety to be used to produce pasta is at the discretion of the producer based on the peculiar characteristics of each cultivar. The availability of analytical approaches for the tracking of specific varieties along the productive chain is becoming increasingly important to authenticate the pasta products and distinguish between fraudulent activities and cross-contaminations during the production process.

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Addressing the challenges of climate change and durum wheat production is becoming an important driver for food and nutrition security in the Mediterranean area, where are located the major producing countries (Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey, and Syria). One of the emergent strategies, to cope with durum wheat adaptation, is the exploration and exploitation of the existing genetic variability in landrace populations. In this context, this review aims to highlight the important role of durum wheat landraces as a useful genetic resource to improve the sustainability of Mediterranean agroecosystems, with a focus on adaptation to environmental stresses.

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Although wheat ( L.) is the main staple crop in the world and a major source of carbohydrates and proteins, functional genomics and allele mining are still big challenges. Given the advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, the identification of causal variants associated with a target phenotype has become feasible.

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Background: Rapid reductions in emissions from fossil fuel burning are needed to curb global climate change. Biofuel production from crop residues can contribute to reducing the energy crisis and environmental deterioration. Wheat is a renewable source for biofuels owing to the low cost and high availability of its residues.

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The olive tree, an iconic symbol of the Mediterranean basin, is the object of growing international interest in the production of olive oil for the world food market. In Tunisia, which is the fourth-largest producer of olive oil in the world, the production of olives and olive oil is of great socio-economic importance. Cultivation is widespread from north to south, but it is carried out using traditional techniques that results in extremely irregular production levels.

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Studying and understanding the genetic basis of polyphenol oxidases (PPO)-related traits plays a crucial role in genetic improvement of crops. A tetraploid wheat collection (T. turgidum ssp.

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Traits such as plant height (PH), juvenile growth habit (GH), heading date (HD), and tiller number are important for both increasing yield potential and improving crop adaptation to climate change. In the present study, these traits were investigated by using the same bi-parental population at early (F and F-derived F families) and late (F and F, recombinant inbred lines, RILs) generations to detect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and search for candidate genes. A total of 176 and 178 lines were genotyped by the wheat Illumina 25K Infinium SNP array.

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The first breeding program in the world for durum wheat was conceived in Italy in the early 1900s. Over the decades, pressure exerted by natural and artificial selection could have progressively reduced the genetic diversity of the durum wheat germplasm. In the present study, a large panel of Italian durum wheat accessions that includes landraces, old and modern cultivars was subjected to genotyping using the Illumina iSelect 15K wheat SNP array.

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Olive is one of the oldest cultivated species in the Mediterranean Basin, including Tunisia, where it has a wide diversity, with more than 200 cultivars, of both wild and feral forms. Many minor cultivars are still present in marginal areas of Tunisia, where they are maintained by farmers in small local groves, but they are poorly characterized and evaluated. In order to recover this neglected germplasm, surveys were conducted in different areas, and 31 genotypes were collected, molecularly characterized with 12 nuclear microsatellite (simple sequence repeat (SSR)) markers, and compared with 26 reference cultivars present in the Tunisian National Olive collection.

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Cultivated lentil ( Medik.) is one of the oldest domesticated crops and one of the most important grain legumes worldwide. The Mediterranean Basin holds large part of lentil biodiversity; however, no genetic structure was defined within the Mediterranean gene pool.

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Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has elevated commercial value due to its health appeal, desirable characteristics and quantitatively limited production, and thus it has become an object of intentional adulteration. As EVOOs on the market might consist of a blend of olive varieties or sometimes even of a mixture of oils from different botanical species, an array of DNA-fingerprinting methods have been developed to check the varietal composition of the blend. Starting from a comparison between publicly available DNA extraction protocols, we set up a timely, low-cost, reproducible and effective DNA isolation protocol, which allows an adequate amount of DNA to be recovered even from commercial filtered EVOOs.

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Information on the distribution of genetic variation is essential to preserve olive germplasm from erosion and to recover alleles lost through selective breeding. In addition, knowledge on population structure and genotype-phenotype associations is crucial to support modern olive breeding programs that must respond to new environmental conditions imposed by climate change and novel biotic/abiotic stressors. To further our understanding of genetic variation in the olive, we performed genotype-by-sequencing on a panel of 94 Italian olive cultivars.

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Background: The olive tree is a typical crop of the Mediterranean basin where it shows a wide diversity, accounting for more than 2,600 cultivars. The ability to discriminate olive cultivars and determine their genetic variability is pivotal for an optimal exploitation of olive genetic resources.

Methods: We investigated the genetic diversity within 128 olive accessions belonging to four countries in the Mediterranean Basin (Italy, Algeria, Syria, and Malta), with the purpose of better understanding the origin and spread of the olive genotypes across Mediterranean Basin countries.

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