ISAFRUIT. Study of the genetic basis of Prunus fruit quality in two peach and two apricot populations
Abstract
A European Integrated Project, untitled ‘ISAFRUIT’, has been engaged in January 2006. It deals with the improvement of fruit consumption by the consumers under both objectives: the optimization of the quality of the row products, and the optimization of the cultural practices. The project involves 40 Research Institutes and 20 Companies issued from 14 European countries and two associated countries. Within the whole project, a work package (6.1) is dedicated to the study of the genetics of fruit quality and health properties. It is subdivided in six main tasks, among them two concerning peach and apricot quality attributes have been already engaged: Task 1 – Identification and mapping of candidate genes for fruit quality in saturated maps of peach and apricot. Task 3 – QTLs analysis of fruit quality. Six research laboratories are involved in theses parts of the project based on the analysis of four Prunus progenies of 120 hybrid each, two apricot progenies cultivated in Avignon (Fr) and Bologna (It), and two peach progenies cultivated in Avignon and Bordeaux (Fr). Fruit quality characterization is based on (i) physical measurements (fruit weight, colour, firmness), (ii) biochemical measurements (refractometric index, titratable acidity) and (iii) on a fine metabolic profiling based on 1H RMN 1D, targeting the major metabolites, associated with a phenolic compounds characterization by HPLC. The related datasets will be joined with the genetic map under saturation for localising the associated QTLs. A particular attention will be paid to the co-linearity between species.