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The effects of different levels of nitrogen fertilization (0-50-100-150-200 kg ha-1), minimal processing and cold storage (14 days at 4°C) on yield and quality of fresh-cut Swiss Chard (Beta vulgaris L. var. cicla L.) were evaluated. Increasing the level of nitrogen fertilization over 100 kg N ha-1, plants had a higher fresh weight, reduced their dry matter content and resulted taller and leafier. Total and marketable yield increased linearly as increasing nitrogen level. Both nitrate and ascorbic acid content at harvest increased as increasing nitrogen supply. Nitrogen fertilization negatively affected the yield of minimal processing. No effect on appearance and quality loss during cold storage was detected. Reducing nitrogen fertilization could lead to a more environmentally friendly product with no significant loss in yield and quality both for raw plant and fresh-cut Swiss chard. Minimal processing can improve nutritional quality lowering nitrates and increasing ascorbic acid content in fresh-cut produce.

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in the NOTCH3 gene, with a striking variability in phenotypic expression. To date, only two homozygous patients have been reported, with divergent phenotypic features. We describe an Italian CADASIL patient, homozygous for G528C mutation, in whom early manifestation of the disease was migraine, but whose clinical evolution was characterized by a reversible acute encephalopathy followed by full recovery ("CADASIL coma"). Clinical evaluation, MR scan, neuropsychological and neurophysiological investigation did not reveal substantial differences between our homozygous patient and her heterozygous relatives sharing the same mutation, or between our patient and a group of heterozygous individuals with the same mutation but from different families. Skin biopsy identified peculiar features in the homozygous patient, with cytoplasmic pseudoinclusions likely containing granular osmiophilic material (GOM) in the vascular smooth muscle cells, but further studies are necessary to substantiate their possible relationships with CADASIL homozygosis. "CADASIL coma" did not seem to be specific of patient's homozygosis, since it was observed in one of her heterozygous relatives, whereas its pathogenesis seems to be related to peculiar constellations of unknown predisposing factors. The present study demonstrated that CADASIL conforms to the classical definition of dominant diseases, according to which homozygotes and heterozygotes for a defect are phenotypically indistinguishable.

La Veccia (Vicia sativa L.) rappresenta per le regioni caldo-aride del bacino del Mediterraneo una specie di notevole interesse sia per la produzione di biomassa utile per l’alimentazione dei ruminanti, sia per la produzione di granella e sia per il posto che occupa all’interno degli avvicendamenti colturali asciutti. In Italia nonostante la produzione di seme certificato è abbastanza diffusa in quasi tutte le regioni del centro-sud, annualmente una quantità significativa di granella per uso zootecnico viene importata da Paesi europei ed extra-europei e poi utilizzata anche come seme non certificato. Per questo motivo si è ritenuto opportuno avviare uno studio del comportamento bio-agronomico e produttivo delle varietà di veccia attualmente disponibili sul mercato nazionale al fine di dare utili indicazioni agli operatori del settore. La prova, adottando adeguato schema sperimentale, è stata condotta nel biennio 2007/08 e 2008/09 presso l’Azienda Sperimentale Sparacia (Cammarata, AG, 400 m s.l.m.) dove sono state messe a confronto 17 varietà di veccia. I risultati ottenuti nel biennio di sperimentazione hanno permesso di registrare una notevole variabilità delle caratteristiche produttive e qualitative delle varietà in prova. In particolare, al primo anno di sperimentazione l’altezza media delle varietà è risultata pari a 73 cm, con estremi compresi tra 54 cm (Caravelle) e 84 cm (Marianna). Mentre al secondo anno la taglia media delle varietà è risultata pari a 133 cm; Marianna è risultata la varietà più bassa ( 119 cm) mentre Pepe la più alta (151 cm). Il peso medio dei 100 semi al primo anno di prova è risultato pari a 5,11 g con estremi compresi tra 7,57 g (Encantada) e 3,50 g (150 DE); quest’ultima varietà anche al secondo anno ha fatto registrare il valore più basso (3,57 g); mentre il valore più elevato e stato fornito dalla Pietranera (6,53 g). La produzione di biomassa ha oscillato da 4,89 t ha-1 (al primo anno), con estremi compresi tra 7,00 e 2,37 t ha- 1, a 3,76 t ha-1 (al secondo anno),con valori compresi fra 2,87 e 4,53 t ha-1. La produzione di granella è risultata pari a 0,85 t ha-1 e 1,05 t ha-1, rispettivamente al primo e secondo anno di sperimentazione. La varietà Catarina (0,61 t ha-1) e la Senda150 DE (0,60 t ha-1) sono risultate le meno produttive mentre, la varietà Marianna è risultata la più produttiva in entrambi gli anni di prova. Il contenuto proteico medio della granella al primo anno di prova è stato pari al 31,6%, con estremi compresi tra 29,1% e 34,0%; al secondo anno, invece, il valore medio è risultato del 26,6%; la varietà Josè ha mostrato il contenuto proteico più elevato nel biennio di prove. La sperimentazione ha permesso non solo di caratterizzare il germoplasma attualmente disponibile di veccia comune, ma anche di verificare la notevole variabilità dei caratteri rilevati. Inoltre, alcuni caratteri hanno mostrato una notevole interazione con l’effetto annata e ciò va studiato anche in relazione al miglioramento dell’adattabilità e della stabilità produttiva della specie negli ambienti caldo-aridi tipici Mediterranei. The vetch (Vicia sativa L.) is an important crop for the hot-arid Mediterranean regions. The species it is used for fresh and dry fodder production and occupy an relevant position within the dry crop rotations. In Italy a significant amount of grain for livestock use is importing from European and non-Europeans Countries, despite the fact that the production of certified seeds is quite idespread in almost all areas of South-Central Italy. For this reason, this study has been undertaken to ascertain bio-agronomic and production behavior of common vetch varieties for forage and seed yield to provide useful guidance for farmers. The experimental trials were carried out during two growing seasons (2007/08 and 2008/09) in Cammarata (Agrigento, Italy.). A randomized complete block design with three replications was used to compare bio-agronomic response of 17 vetch genotypes some of whom already present in the Italian National Register of Varieties. In the present article we reported only the following results: biomass and yield (t ha-1), protein content of grain (%), height plant (cm) and 100 grain weight (g). Over the two seasons, vetch grain yield and qualitative grain traits were highly variable. In particular, the values of biomass ranges between 7.00 t ha-1 and 2.70 t ha-1 during the first year and between 2,87 t ha-1 and 4,53 t ha-1 in the second year. Marianna genotype showed higher yield in both field trials, while Caterina genotype and Senda 150 DE genotype showed the lowest yield (0,61 t ha-1 and 0,60 t ha-1 respectively in the first and second year. The average protein content in fist year was 31,6% while, in the second year was 26,6%. The highest value was recorded by Josè genotype in both field trials The results, obtained during this two experimental trials, have contributed to increase the knowledge of the available vetch germoplasm and to highlight the high variability of investigated bio agronomic and quality traits. Moreover, same traits have showed a high genotypes-year interaction due to different meteorological conditions for the two growing seasons. This effect should be studied in depth in order to select suitable vetch genotypes in hot-arid Mediterranean regions, typical of internal Sicilian areas.

La borragine (Borago officinalis L.) è una pianta erbacea annuale originaria di Europa, Nord Africa e Asia Minore. Viene coltivata in tutto il mondo ed è usata come pianta ornamentale da giardino, per scopi medicinali o come ortaggio per la preparazione di insalate e bevande. L'importanza come pianta medicinale è dovuta all'alto contenuto di acido gamma linolenico nell'olio estratto dai semi ed alle proprietà diuretiche, emollienti, espettoranti, ecc. delle foglie. I piccioli, le foglie e gli steli sono molto apprezzati, anche, come ortaggi sin da tempi remoti in molte delle zone di maggiore diffusione in natura, tanto che la borragine comincia ad essere coltivata a fini commerciali oltre che medicinali. Nell'ampia zona di origine si ritrova una notevole variabilità per quanto riguarda le caratteristiche morfo-fisiologiche e per quelle chimiche e nutrizionali. Con il presente lavoro è stata realizzata una prima ricognizione della variabilità morfo-fisiologica e biochimica esistente all'interno di alcune popolazioni di borragine presenti in Sicilia. Lo studio ha avuto inizio in situ, individuando piante di borragine in diversi areali siciliani dalle quali è stato raccolto il seme che è stato successivamente impiegato per realizzare una prova descrittiva in cui sono state messe a confronto, in un unico ambiente, 14 accessioni provenienti da 7 siti (Monte Pellegrino, PA; Addaura, PA; Capo Gallo, PA; Parco della Favorita, PA; Caltavuturo, PA; Buseto, TP; Cavadonna, SR) La caratterizzazione è stata effettuata sulla base di rilievi morfologici e fisiologici ed analisi chimiche per valutare il potenziale biochimico. In particolare, sono stati valutati forma e dimensione della foglia, pigmentazione antocianica della foglia e del picciolo, presenza di marche sulle foglie, bollosità della guaina fogliare, altezza delle piante alla fioritura, epoca di fioritura, ecc. Tali caratteri morfo-fisiologici sono stati rilevati nei diversi stadi fenologici, su diverse piante per ciascuna accessione e successivamente registrati in una scheda descrittiva. Il potenzale biochimico è stato stimato valutando il contenuto di polifenoli totali ed il potere antiradicalico (mediante saggio con DPPH). Le osservazioni e le analisi svolte hanno messo in evidenza una notevole variabilità tra le diverse accessioni valutate ed in alcuni casi anche all'interno delle stesse accessioni. Queste hanno presentato differenze significative in termini di taglia (da 53,4 cm + 5,8 a 101,5 cm + 4,43), dimensione e colore delle foglie, presenza delle marche, epoca di fioritura (da 90 a 141 gg dal trapianto) e qualità dei semi prodotti. Il contenuto in polifenoli totali è risultato variabile tanto da raddoppiare tra l’accessione che ne conteneva di meno e quella che ne conteneva di più. Il potere antiradicalico è risultato molto elevato in tutte le accessioni che hanno fatto rilevare la capacità di neutralizzare i radicali liberi tra il 90,1 ed il 93,4%. La caratterizzazione effettuata, pur preliminare, ha consentito di individuare alcune caratteristiche interessanti dal punto di vista agronomico e salutistico che possono aiutare nella valorizzazione della borragine coltivandola come ortaggio da foglia da destinare eventualmente anche alla preparazione di prodotti di IV gamma.

Although the olive (Olea europaea sativa l.) is considered a xerophytic species, long periods of water stress and high temperatures during summer months can greatly affect plant physiology and productivity. In recent years, the use of plant-based water status indicators have become popular in the study of plant-water relationships and in the design of irrigation programs, particularly midday stem water potential (ψstem). The current trend in the irrigation of olive trees is in the development of Deficit Irrigation (DI) systems whereby the water is applied at a rate which is lower than evapotranspiration needs, resulting in only very small reductions in yield. Rather than working towards minimizing crop water deficits, an irrigation manager must decide on what level of deficit to allow and must recognize when that level has been reached. Traditionally, olive trees in Sicily are not watered, with the exception of those destined for the table olive industry. Considering the growth of the table olive industry in Sicily, the choice of a correct irrigation management related to the olive tree stress threshold is necessary in order to save water. In the Belice Valley, where the table olive cultivar Nocellara del Belice is cultivated, irrigation is still managed traditionally, with a high level of variability and water waste. This trial, conducted in two consecutive olive crop seasons (2010 and 2011) aimed to evaluate the effects of deficit irrigation management on tree physiology, yield and fruit quality of the table olive cultivar Nocellara del Belice.

La borragine (Borago officinalis L.) è una pianta erbacea annuale tomentosa della famiglia Boraginaceae originaria dell'Europa e del Nord Africa, ampiamente diffusa in molti paesi mediterranei. Questa pianta è coltivata in tutto il mondo ed è usata per scopi medicinali nonché per la preparazione di bevande e per essere consumata cruda o cotta. La coltivazione della borragine è principalmente orientata alla produzione di seme, mentre la coltura da ortaggio è molto limitata e spesso si ricorre alla raccolta delle piante spontanee per soddisfare le richieste di mercato. Al fine di valorizzare il potenziale orticolo di questa specie, la presente ricerca ha lo scopo di valutare la possibilità di coltivazione per la produzione di foglie di borragine minimamente processate. Dai risultati ottenuti nella presente ricerca, la borragine si è dimostrata una specie rustica, di facile coltivazione e con limitate esigenze idriche e nutritive. Pertanto risulta una specie interessante per diversificare la produzione orticola di pieno campo. Inoltre, le foglie di borragine hanno dimostrato una buona idoneità alla preparazione di prodotto di IV gamma, mantenendo sufficienti requisiti qualitativi durante 14 giorni di conservazione a 4°C. Ulteriori ricerche sono in corso per migliorare la produttività della coltura ed ottenere piante più pulite che consentano di ridurre le manipolazioni nelle operazioni di mondatura e lavaggio delle foglie per l’ottenimento di prodotto minimamente processato.

Vicia sativa L. is an annual cleaning crop mainly used in rotation with durum wheat, both for seed production and for forage, either as a pure crop or as an undercrop, and is well adapted to the hot-dry climate and poor soils of Southern of Italy. Generally, cultivar identification is done on the basis of distinctive traits, such as shape, size, colour of the testa and ornamentations, identified during the variety registration, following official protocols. For some vetch varieties seed identification by specialized technicians is possible without difficulty, while for other varieties it is very difficult and sometimes impossible to achieve undoubted identification. Therefore, it is important, from both technical and economical points of view, to have a quick, reliable, repeatable, and non destructive method to be able to identify and classify seeds objectively. In order to promote computerised image analysis as a tool to aid visual inspection and replace human judgement in the discrimination of different seeds, this technique was applied to analyse and identify seeds of common vetch varieties. Seed size, shape and colour of nine Italian cultivars of common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) and one of hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth.) were measured using digital images acquired by a flatbed scanner and, on the basis of a Linear Discriminant Analysis algorithm, a statistical classifier able to identify the ten cultivars was implemented.

The influence of flesh firmness on consumer acceptance and its relationship with total soluble solids concentration (TSSC), titratable acidity (TTA) and sensory analysis was studied to understand their interaction in determining acceptance judgments, for different organoleptic typologies of peaches and nectarines. The investigation was carried out during summer 2006 on fruit of ‘September Sun’ and ‘Sweet September’ (low acid) peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch), and ‘Maria Dolce’ (low acid) and ‘Venus’ nectarines (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch, var. nucipersica). Sensory descriptors for peaches and nectarines were Flesh firmness, Sweetness, Sourness, Aroma, and Acceptability. The panel was able to discriminate different fruit ripening stages, in terms of fruit firmness, aroma and sweetness and to relate those parameters to fruit acceptability. ‘Maria Dolce’, ‘Venus’ and ‘September Sun’ fruit ranging from 3.2 to 5.3 kg cm–2 of flesh firmness, were accepted by the panel, while acceptability of low-acid fruit of ‘Sweet September’ was related to their aroma and firmness. Values of flesh firmness higher than 5.5 kg cm–2 always resulted in unacceptable fruit quality.

In peach industry, due to the increasing cost of the land, energy and salaries, in the last thirty years have been developed horticultural strategies to increase the productivity of the orchards and to reduce the employment of hand workers. In areas in which large part of the days are brilliant, clean sky, with high levels of light intensity, and relative humidity is low, as those with a Mediterranean climate, to reach the above mentioned goal have been developed planting systems based on high tree densities and new tree shapes. In Southern Italy, technicians have been particularly active in performing new tree canopy architectures and growers showed to be very sensitive to these innovations as evidenced from the replacement of the traditional open vase with “inclined double walls” systems Y, V and Tatura trellis. These new planting systems, respect to those based on the “open vase“ allowed to obtain higher yield together with a larger amount of top quality fruits and this as consequence of the increased amount of light intercepted and more uniformly distributed within the tree. In this last decade, the increasing costs of the trellis components (iron wires and poles) to build up the trellis and the costs of the trees, due to the royalties protecting the new released cultivars, became the major limits of this super-intensive planting systems. For this reasons, despite the high efficiency of the workers in practicing the manual techniques (fruit thinning, harvest and pruning) the “inclined double walls” started to be abandoned and technicians and growers start to move to the catalan vase. This new system has been develop recently in Spain, being a new tree shape, a dwarfed vase named catalano, that complies relative high density with low cost for orchard planting and management. This training system, to control vegetative excessive growth , is based on several treatments of topping, some of them, particularly during the summer season, are performed mechanically. Preliminary observations carried out in Sibari, seem to confirm that the vasetto catalano - even managed without treatments with paclobutrazol, a growth retardant, as used in Spain, - could represent a valid planting system to produce both fruit for the fresh and for the processed (fresh cut, sliced fruits) fruits market. In greenhouse production, where precocious and high yield are the required conditions to have early return, planting systems have to be based on tree shapes that fit with high densities, as Y and V, currently the only one able to provide fruit of optimal quality for out-of-season peaches market. In California, although a certain agronomic success has been obtained by the KAC V, the “inclined double wall “systems were unsuccessful. Other shapes as “Quad V” and “Hex-V” , that are a sort of compromise between the perpendicular “V” system and the traditional open vase, have been developed in order to address some of the vigor issue inherent in the two scaffold perpendicular system as well as to reduce planting densities and orchard establishment cost. Scientist and field technicians are still searching for the molecule for fruit thinning and to build up the right machine for harvesting trees trained to open vase. Unfortunately, so far, only summer pruning mechanization has been developed. In Chile most of the information necessary to develop the important advances of fruit industry occurred in the last 25 years have been introduced or adapted from abroad. Peach orchards have been steadily intensified, predominantly using denser orchards with refined form of the open vase system, with the perpendicular V or three arm trees currently being the most common system. Generally, tree size reduction has been one of the main objective of breeders by searching for compact and brachitic vegetative habitus and for dwarfing rootstocks but no satisfactory genotypes has been selected yet and this last still remain a potential tool for high density planting systems. The researches on the use of chemical agents able to control vegetative growth were abandoned in many Countries because the environmentalist movements hardly contrasted such kind of solution. However, rational irrigation, mineral nutrition and soil management (controlled water stress, fertirrigation according to phenologic tree phase and real absorption, cover crops) could contribute to improve planting systems, controlling the vigor trees in orchard.

Inside the project “Piano per la Produzione di Proteine Vegetali in Sicilia” investigations were carried out to characterize a bean population cultivated in the Parco delle Madonie area, the ‘Fagiolo Badda di Polizzi’. The producers’ interest for this landrace and the appreciation of the consumers could justify the start up of a valorization program through a product certification. Researches on the morpho-physiological aspects and on the nutritional profile were made in trials conducted between 2005 and 2007. All the Badda bean accessions showed an indeterminate plant growth habit, white flowers and a very delayed flowering time. In particular, a certain variability was seen and described for the size and shape of pods and seeds. Two types of Badda are cultivated, differentiated by the secondary seed colour: the “white Badda” and the “black Badda”. Both have ivory has a primary seed coat colour, but the “white Badda” has a brownish spot on the hilum, whereas the “black Badda” shows a black spot. In addition, the secondary colour of the seed coat of the “black Badda” showed two different pigmentations: violet and black, that suggested a genetic differentiation into different sub-populations. Finally, the “black Badda” resulted less susceptible to viral infections than the “white” one. At the molecular level, three accessions of Badda bean (two ‘white’ and one ‘black’) have been compared with control varieties, including one accessions of ‘Fagiolo del Purgatorio’ from Gradoli (VT), seven landraces of the Borlotto type collected in the Marche region and the cultivars Bat, Jalo, Clio and Big Borlotto. The analyses were carried out using 12 Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) primers yielding a total of 140 bands. Although no specific band for the Badda landrace were detected, two amplicons were found only in the accessions of Badda and in Monachello, a bicol-seeded type from the Marche region, morphologically similar to the “black Badda”. The dendrogram obtained from the genetic distances based on ISSRs indicated that the Badda type belongs to the Andean gene pool and that it is distinguishable from the tested controls being grouped into a separate cluster. Within the Badda type, the ‘white’ accessions were not separated from the ‘black’ one.

Una costante attenzione verso l’ottimizzazione dei fattori della produzione ha determinato una rapida adozione delle innovazioni proposte dalla ricerca nel campo dei sistemi d’impianto, per la grande importanza che essi rivestono nella qualità delle produzioni e nella redditività della coltura. Riduzione dei costi di produzione e massima efficienza della manodopera gli obiettivi prioritari, talora ottenuti attraverso l''“estensivizzazione” colturale, con bassi costi d’investimento. Un confronto fra l’Italia meridionale, California e Cile.

The influence of flesh firmness on consumer acceptance and its relationship with total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TTA) and sensory analysis were studied for fruits of ‘September Sun’ and ‘Sweet September’ (low acid) peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch), and ‘Maria Dolce’ (low acid) and ‘Venus’ nectarine (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch, var. nucipersica) cultivars. Sensory descriptors, assessed by a short-trained panel, were firmness, sweetness, sourness, aroma, acceptability. Different stages of fruit firmness did not always result in significant differences of TSS, TTA and their ratio, but the panel was able to discriminate fruit ripening stages, in terms of fruit firmness, aroma and sweetness and to relate them to fruit acceptability. Acceptability of fruits with a 3.2 to 5.3 kg cm-2 firmness was similar, provided they had a high TSS, TSS/TTA and aroma. Values of flesh firmness higher than 5.5 kg cm-2 always resulted in unacceptable fruit quality. A threshold TSSC/TTA value cannot be used as a single marker for eating quality, since it may range among cultivars, while fruit aroma is the limiting factor for the consumers’ choice.

Oxidative stress is a particularly severe threat to Antarctic marine polar organisms because they are exposed to high dissolved oxygen and to intense UV radiation. This paper reports the features of three superoxide dismutases from the Antarctic psychrophilic ciliate Euplotes focardii that faces two environmental challenges, oxidative stress and low temperature. Two out of these are Cu,Zn superoxide dismutases (named Ef-SOD1a and Ef-SOD1b) and one belongs to the Mn-containing group (Ef-SOD2). Ef-SOD1s and Ef-SOD2 differ in their evolutionary history, expression and overall structural features. Ef-SOD1 genes are expressed at different levels, with Ef-SOD1b mRNA 20-fold higher at the ciliate optimal temperature of growth (4 °C). All Ef-SOD enzymes are active at 4 °C, consistent with the definition of cold-adapted enzymes. At the same time, they display temperatures of melting in the range 50–70 °C and retain residual activity after incubation at 65–75 °C. Supported by data of molecular dynamics simulation, we conclude that the E. focardii SODs combine cold activity, local molecular flexibility and thermo tolerance.