DPVTA, Pomology and Viticulture - Projects and Publications

Variety field test of fruit crops (apple, pear, kiwifruit)

The Department belongs to the national apple variety field trial net. The collection includes 122 apple cultivars. The Department provides information for the annual publication of the list of cultivars recommended to growers.
The Department holds other small collections of kiwifruit and grape varieties and rootstocks.

Publications
(only in Italian)

Ripening metabolism in stone fruit (peach)

Mesocarp of peach fruit during development exhibited the capability to actively uptake sugars, and the presence in the tissue of different sucrose cleavage activities were measured. In a previous project we obtained a homologous probe for vacuolar invertase in peach with a highly conserved motif (WECVDF) corresponding to the catalytic site of the enzyme (unpublished results). Currently, we focus on sucrose-cleaving enzymes, particularly sucrose synthase. Our goal is to assign roles to these molecules in sucrose metabolism and fruit quality, and to understand their regulation. During fruit growth of peach cultivar with different harvest time the activity of the sucrose cleavage enzymes (sucrose synthase and invertase) will be determined as a function of pH, substrate concentration, positive or negative effectors, to suggest possible regulation site(s) of the system. Moreover, there will be examined the expression pattern of specific mRNA for sucrose synthase during peach fruit growth. A database searching (GenBank, EMBL) will be performed in order to find the sucrose synthase sequence records. A multi-alignment will be established and the conserved sequences utilized to design primers useful for amplifing, by PCR, the homologous region(s) in peach. The amplified DNA fragment(s), labelled with digossigenine (or 33P), will be used for hybridization with RNA samples obtained from peach fruits. The RNA extracted from peach fruit during development will be used to study the expression pattern of the sucrose synthase (Northern blottting analysis). In addition, there will be investigated the possible regulatory role of sugars and ethylene on enzymes of sucrose metabolism. It is known that sugars may play a regolatory role in plants, therefore we intend to ascertain the presence of a relationship between expression pattern of invertase and sucrose synthase and assimilate partitioning. Recently, in transgenic plants it has been pointed out cross-talk between the sugars (glucose) and ethylene signal transduction pathways. Hormones may be involved in the coordination of metabolic activity in the fruit, and, therefore, in assimilate partitioning and allocation in the sink tissue. In order to verify this possibility, peach fruit will be treated with specific inhibitors of ethylene biosynthesis or receptors. Particularly, inhibitors of ethylene biosynthesis, and a recently proposed inhibitor of ethylene receptor (1-MCP) will be adopted to impair the signal transduction pathway, and to verify the possible consequence on enzymes of sugar metabolism and fruit quality.

Publications

VIZZOTTO G, PINTON R, VARANINI Z, COSTA G (1996) Sucrose accumulation in developing peach fruit. Physiol Plant 96:225-230

Molecular taxonomy of Actinidia

In previous research projects (National Research Council, EU INCO-DC), we have demonstrated that chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) is paternally inherited whereas mitochodrial DNA (mtDNA) is inherited through the mother parent. This different uniparental inheritance of cellular genomes observed in Actinidia, which violates the rule according to which cytoplasmic DNAs are both inherited through the mother parent in Angiosperms, gives an extraordinary opportunity to investigate the evolution of this genus following either paternal and maternal lineage. We are screening the different Actinidia species at several cpDNa and mtDNA sequences in cooperation with the Wuhan Institute of Botany (China).

Publications

CIPRIANI G, TESTOLIN R, GARDNER R (1998) Restriction-site variation of PCR-amplified chloroplast DNA regions and its implication for the evolution and taxonomy of Actinidia. Theor Appl Genet: 96 (3/4): 389-396
TESTOLIN R, CIPRIANI G (1997) Paternal inheritance of chloroplast DNA and maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA in the genus Actinidia. Theor Appl Genet 94: 897-903
ATKINSON RG, CIPRIANI G, WHITTAKER DJ, GARDNER RC (1997) The allopolyploid origin of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa). Plant Systematics and Evolution 205:111-124
TESTOLIN R, FERGUSON AR (1997) Isozyme polymorphism in the genus Actinidia and the origin of the hexaploid genome of kiwifruit (A. deliciosa). Syst Bot 22 (4): 685-700
CIPRIANI G, TESTOLIN R, MORGANTE M (1995) Paternal inheritance of plastids in interspeficic hybrids of the genus Actinidia revealed by PCR-amplified chloroplast DNA fragments. Mol & Gen Genet 247: 693-697

Development of molecular markers and maps (Actinidia, Prunus, Grape, Olive, Strawbery)

Several research projects have/are being carried out aiming to develop SSR markers suitable for typing germplasm of several fruit crops. Cultivar fingerprinting and analysis of pedigree is a by-product of such a research activity.
SSR-based linkage maps are under development in kiwifruit, grape, apricot, and strawberry in cooperation with national and international research groups.

Publications

DI GASPERO G, CIPRIANI G, MARRAZZO MT, ANDREETTA D, PRADO CASTRO MJ, PETERLUNGER E, TESTOLIN R (2005) Isolation of (AC)n-microsatellites in Vitis vinifera L. and analysis of genetic background in grapevines under marker assisted selection. Mol Breeding 15 (1): 11-20
CIPRIANI G, TESTOLIN R (2004) Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in Fragaria. Mol Ecol Notes 4: 366-368
MESSINA R, LAIN O, MARRAZZO MT, CIPRIANI G, TESTOLIN R (2004) New set of microsatellite loci isolated in apricot. Mol Ecol Notes 4: 432-434
TESTOLIN R, MESSINA R, LAIN O, MARRAZZO MT, HUANG W-G, CIPRIANI G (2004) Microsatellites isolated in almond from an AC-repeat enriched library. Mol Ecol Notes 4: 459-461
BELAJ A, CIPRIANI G, TESTOLIN R, RALLO L, TRUJILLO I (2004) Characterization and identification of the main Spanish and Italian olive cultivars by simple-sequence-repeat markers. HortScience 39(7): 1557-1561
ARANZANA MJ, PINEDA A, COSSON P, DIRLEWANGER E, ASCASIBAR J, CIPRIANI G, RYDER D, TESTOLIN R, ABBOTT A, KING GJ, IEZZONI AF, ARÚS P (2003) A set of simple-sequence repeat (SSR) markers covering the Prunus genome. Theor Appl Genet 106: 819-825
BELAJ A, SATOVIC Z, CIPRIANI G, BALDONI L, TESTOLIN R, RALLO L, TRUJILLO I (2003) Comparative study of the discriminating capacity of RAPD, AFLP and SSR markers and of their effectiveness in establish genetic relationships in olive. Theor Appl Genet 107: 736-744
MARRAZZO T, CIPRIANI G, MARCONI R, CIMATO A, TESTOLIN R (2002) Microsatellite markers isolated in olive (Olea europaea L.) are suitable for individual fingerprinting and reveal polymorphism within ancient cultivars. Theor Appl Genet 104: 223-228
TESTOLIN R, MARRAZZO T, CIPRIANI G, QUARTA R, VERDE I, DETTORI MT, PANCALDI M, SANSAVINI S (2000) Microsatellite DNA in peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) and its use in fingerprinting and testing the genetic origin of cultivars. Genome 43 (3): 512-520
CIPRIANI G, LOT G, HUANG W-G, MARRAZZO MT, PETERLUNGER E, TESTOLIN R (1999) AC/GT and AG/CT microsatellite repeats in peach (Prunus persica (L) Batsch): isolation, characterisation and cross-species amplification in Prunus. Theor Appl Genet 99: 65-72
HUANG W-G, CIPRIANI G, MORGANTE M, TESTOLIN R (1998) Microsatellite DNA in Actinidia chinensis: isolation, characterisation, and homology in related species. Theor Appl Genet 97: 1269-1278
CIPRIANI G, FREZZA G, PETERLUNGER E, TESTOLIN R (1994) Grapevine fingerprinting using microsatellite repeats. Vitis, 33: 211-215

Kiwifruit genetics & breeding (sex determinant, new cultivars, genome mapping)

Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis, Actinidia deliciosa) is a dioecious recently domesticated crop. We are interested in (1) mapping and cloning the sex determinant with the aim of studying the genetic control of dioecy in plants and to overcome the dioecy in kiwifruit; (2) developing new varieties for the market
In previous research projects (Natl. Biotech. Plan, EU INCO-DC) a linkage map based on microsatellites and integrated with AFLP markers have been developed. Moreover several sets of AFLP primers have been screened in co-operations with the Agricultural University of Beijing (China) using the bulk segregant analysis and several markers linked to the sex determinant have been found, none of which suitable for the marker-assisted selection. Further work is in progress.
We are currently evaluating some 3,000 seedling of A. chinensis derived from controlled crosses. Two male varieties (A. deliciosa Autari, A. chinensis Belén) have already been released.

Publications

TESTOLIN R, MESSINA R, LAIN O, CIPRIANI G (2004) A natural male to female mutant in kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa). New Zealand J Crop & Hort Sci 32 (2): 179-183
TESTOLIN R, HUANG WG, LAIN O., MESSINA R, VECCHIONE A, CIPRIANI G (2001) A kiwifruit (Actinidia spp.) linkage map based on microsatellites and integrated with AFLP markers. Theor Appl Genet: 103: 30-36
HUANG W-G, CIPRIANI G, MORGANTE M, TESTOLIN R (1998) Microsatellite DNA in Actinidia chinensis: isolation, characterisation, and homology in related species. Theor Appl Genet 97: 1269-1278
TESTOLIN R, CIPRIANI G, MESSINA R (1998) Sex control in Actinidia is monofactorial and remains so in polyploids: 173-181. In Ainsworth C (ed) Sex Determination in Plants. Bios Scientific Publisher, Oxford UK
TESTOLIN R, CIPRIANI G, COSTA G (1995) Sex segregation ratio and gender expression in the genus Actinidia. Sexual Plant Reprod 8: 129-132

Grapevine genetics & breeding (genome mapping, breeding for disease resistance, ampelography)

The grape research group manage a grape germplasm repository which includes wild species, international and local cultivars and breeding lines carrying disease resistance genes.
The group participates to the International VMC (Vitis Microsatellite Consortium) for the development of SSR in grape and to Grape Genome Initiative aiming to develop linkage and physical maps, ESTs, BAC libaries and other tools devoted to understanding grape genome structure and function.
Several controlled crosses useful to studying the genetic control of disease resistances and mapping related genes/QTLs have been made involving Asian, American and European genotypes and hybrids.

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