In Progress Activities to Exploit the Mediterranean
Wild and Cultivated Brassica Germplasm for Improving
Human Health and Environmentally Friendly Farming
Ferdinando Branca
Department of Agriculture and Food Science
University of Catania
The history of the Mediterranean basin, traversed in turn by
Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Arabs, Normans, Spaniards
and French, is reflected in its traditions and horticultural diversity
In this frame Sicily represented, such as some other Mediterranean
islands, an important crossroad as is reflected by
its food traditions and horticultural diversity
As result of Sicilian ancient past and of its particular geographic
location there are a great number of vegetables grown under different
environmental, agronomical and social contexts including home
gardens and peri-urban vegetable farms
In Sicily are also widespread several
wild species, often
representing crop wild relatives, which are either gathered or
occasionally cultivated, that make up the richness of its agriculture
genetic resources
A rather particular contribution of Sicilian vegetable diversity is
represented by varietal groups of Brassicas that are characterized by
qualitative traits appreciated by local consumers. These include
landraces of violet and green curded cauliflower, sprouting broccoli,
red kohlrabi and leafy kale
Brassica vegetables stimulate great interest for:
•Wide genetic diversity till available and not yet
full exploited;
•
Nutraceutical traits of the produce which support
the attention of the international medical community;
•
New perspectives for food industry to exploit
the several landraces till now underutilized;
•
Possibility to support environmentally friendly farming.
New opportunities are
offered by the new food
technologies for exploiting
traditional and new brassica
phenotypes for new
processes (IV and V gamma
produce)
Several Authors showed molecular DNA evidences on the
wide diversity of Mediterranean Brassica wild species in
comparison to the B. olearacea wild type populations of the
European Atlantic coasts indicating that domestication of B.
olearacea cultigroups occurred in of the north-central and
north-east areas of Mediterranean basin
The richness of Brassica wild relatives (n=9), is supported
by perennial plants with woody stem, up to 1.5 m tall,
large leaves and high glucosinolate content. The plants
are often self-incompatible, with high tendency to
mutations and freely inter-crossing among them and with
B. oleracea crops.
The high anticancer proprieties have been individuated in some
interspecific hybrids F1 between B. oleracea cultigroups and
Brassica wild relatives allowed to obtain new cultivars with high
levels of glucosinolates, such as glucoraphanin, a cancer
fighting antioxidant which avoid DNA damage.
Diversity of Italian cauliflower LRs
Medioprimo
Tardivo
Medio
Main goals for Verde of Macerata Lrs improvement
Improve morphological characters
Amplify harvesting time
Reduce physiological disorders
Improve resistance against pest and diseases
I
F1 Verde M x Fanese
II
F2
F2
F2
III
F2 x
Verde M
F3
F3
IV
BCF1
V
BCFn
VI
VII
F3 x
Verde M
F4
F4 x
Verde
F3 x
Verde M
BCFn
BCFn
BCF
BCFn
Glucosinolate profile of Sicilian violet landraces
compared to commercialised white cvs
%
100
1-glucoiberin
2-progoitrin
3-sinigrin
4-glucoraphanin
7-glucobrassicin
8-neoglucobrassicin
80
60
40
20
0
1
Sicilian
violet
landraces
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Branca F. et al., 2002. Phytochemistry, 59, 717-724.
11Commercialised
12
13 cvs
14
15
16
Total glucosinolates (μM g-ss)
20
15
10
5
0
1
2
3
LRs
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Syn 1
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Syn 2
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Syn 3 CT DK Com
F1
36
Glucoraphanin (μM g-ss)
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
2
LRs
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Syn 1
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Syn 2
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Syn 3 CT DK Com
F1
36
Glucobrassicin (μM g-ss)
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
2
LRs
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Syn 1
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Syn 2
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Syn 3 CT DK Com
F1
36
Total polyphenols (mg g -ss)
25
20
15
10
5
0
1
2
LRs
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Syn 1
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Syn 2
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
Syn 3 CT DK Com
F1
35
36
Diversity of Italian broccoli LRs
Total glucosinolates
16
14
μm ol g -1 s.s
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
GLs tot.
GRA
GBS
Total poliphenols
25
m g -1 s.s
20
15
10
5
0
2
I
9
1
10
13
1
G
CP2
H
7
11
6
0
12
8
2
1
CP1
0
-1
3
A
2
-1
3
F
5
4
C
D-E
B
-1,0-,5
-2,0-1,5
1,0 1,5
,5
0,0
CP3
Kale diversity in Europe
Diversity for antioxidant compounds
of Italian and Iberian LRs of kale
Total polyphenols (mg g
-1 dw)
Glucosinolate Total (µM/g
d.w.)
Glucoiberin (µM/g
Progoitrin (µM/g
d.w.)
Aliphatic
d.w.)
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
BY 5 B. incana DC B. incana
(Agnone
(Lago Albano)
Bagni)
DA B.
montana
(Monte
Conero)
BL B. villosa
(Pizzo
Telegrafo)
BN B. incana
BU 9 B.
BW B. inacana BX B. villosa
(Agnone
rupestris
(Sortino)
(Marianopoli)
Bagni)
(Ragusa Ibla)
BU 5 B.
rupestris
(Roccella
Valdemone)
BU 15 B.
rupestris
(Stilo)
BB B.
macrocarpa
(Favignana)
Aliphatic
Glucoraphanin (µM/g
d.w.)
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
BY 5 B. incana DC B. incana DA B. montana BL B. villosa
(Agnone
(Lago Albano)
(Monte
(Pizzo
Bagni)
Conero)
Telegrafo)
Sinigrin (µM/g
BN B. incana
(Agnone
Bagni)
d.w.)
BU 9 B.
BW B. inacana BX B. villosa
rupestris
(Sortino)
(Marianopoli)
(Ragusa Ibla)
BU 5 B.
rupestris
(Roccella
Valdemone)
BU 15 B.
rupestris
(Stilo)
BB B.
macrocarpa
(Favignana)
Sinalbin (µM/g
Aliphatic
d.w.)
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
BY 5 B. incana DC B. incana
(Agnone (Lago Albano)
Bagni)
DA B.
montana
(Monte
Conero)
BL B. villosa
(Pizzo
Telegrafo)
Gluconapin (µM/g
BN B. incana
BU 9 B.
BW B. inacana BX B. villosa
(Agnone
rupestris
(Sortino) (Marianopoli)
Bagni)
(Ragusa Ibla)
d.w.)
BU 5 B.
rupestris
(Roccella
Valdemone)
BU 15 B.
rupestris
(Stilo)
BB B.
macrocarpa
(Favignana)
Aliphatic
Glucoiberverin (µM/g
d.w.)
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
BY 5 B. incana DC B. incana
(Agnone (Lago Albano)
Bagni)
DA B.
montana
(Monte
Conero)
BL B. villosa BN B. incana
BU 9 B. BW B. inacana BX B. villosa
(Pizzo
(Agnone
rupestris
(Sortino) (Marianopoli)
Telegrafo)
Bagni)
(Ragusa Ibla)
BU 5 B.
rupestris
(Roccella
Valdemone)
BU 15 B.
rupestris
(Stilo)
BB B.
macrocarpa
(Favignana)
Glucobrassicin (µM/g
d.w.)
Neo-Glucobrassicin (µM/g
Indolic
d.w.)
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
BY 5 B. incana DC B. incana
(Agnone (Lago Albano)
Bagni)
DA B.
montana
(Monte
Conero)
BL B. villosa
(Pizzo
Telegrafo)
BN B. incana
BU 9 B.
BW B. inacana BX B. villosa
(Agnone
rupestris
(Sortino) (Marianopoli)
Bagni)
(Ragusa Ibla)
BU 5 B.
rupestris
(Roccella
Valdemone)
BU 15 B.
rupestris
(Stilo)
BB B.
macrocarpa
(Favignana)
Aromatic
Gluconasturtiin (µM/g
d.w.)
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
BY 5 B. incana DC B. incana
(Agnone (Lago Albano)
Bagni)
DA B.
montana
(Monte
Covero)
BL B. villosa BN B. incana
BU 9 B.
(Pizzo
(Agnone
rupestris
Telegrafo)
Bagni)
(Ragusa Ibla)
BW B.
inacana
(Sortino)
BX B. villosa
(Marianopoli)
BU 5 B.
rupestris
(Roccella
Valdemone)
BU 15 B.
rupestris
(Stilo)
BB B.
macrocarpa
(Favignana)
Measurement of antioxidant capacity
Species
Origin
DPPH
(mmol AsA/100g
LIPOX-CROCIN
dw)
(mmol TROLOX/100 g
Brassica incana
Agnone Bagni
39,7 ± 1,0
19,3 ± 1,8
Brassica incana
Lago Albano
10,1 ± 0,4
10,7 ± 1,6
Brassica incana
Sortino
14,9 ± 0,4
8,3 ± 1,0
Brassica incana
Agnone Bagni
22,1 ± 3,6
8,6 ± 0,7
Brassica macrocarpa
Favignana
3,6 ± 0,1
2,3 ± 0,3
Brassica montana
Monte Conero
69,9 ± 12,5
17,6 ± 3,5
Brassica rupestris
Ragusa Ibla
13,0 ± 0,4
11,2 ± 3,5
Brassica rupestris
Roccella Valdemone
23,1 ± 0,4
3,6 ± 0,8
Brassica rupestris
Stilo
37,7 ± 1,3
9,2 ± 1,8
Brassica villosa
Marianopoli
15,0 ± 0,4
8,8 ± 0,6
Brassica villosa
Pizzo Telegrafo
15,1 ± 0,1
8,1 ± 0,6
dw)
DPPH vs CROCIN
0.705 *
DPPH vs ATH
-0.043 ns
DPPH vs TPC
0.648 *
DPPH vs AsA
0.506 ns
DPPH vs CAR
0.323 ns
DPPH vs GLS
-0.193 ns
Correlation
coefficients
(rxy) obtained by simple
linear regression analysis
between
antioxidant
indexes
and
chemical
parameters.
CROCIN vs ATH
-0.103 ns
*: p<0.05; **: p<0.01; ns:
p>0.05
CROCIN vs TPC
0.687 *
CROCIN vs AsA
0.293 ns
CROCIN vs CAR
0.811 **
CROCIN vs GLS
-0.420 ns
Genetic flux between wild species and landraces
and their role for crop differentiation
Signals of Inter-crossing between Leafy
Kale Landraces and Brassica rupestris in
South Italy
Maggioni et al, 2013, Acta Hort. 10051
During two years we collected
leafy kale landraces from 6 home
gardens and 5 wild populations of
B. rupestris in Calabria
Leafy kale from 17 home gardens
and 4 wild populations in Sicily.
A putative hybrid population was
collected in Sicily.
A total of 889 individuals were analyzed by AFLPs
PCA of all leafy kale (cult) and all
Brassica rupestris (wild) populations
PCA of Sicilian leafy kales vs. B. rupestris populations
PCA of Calabrian leafy kales vs. B. rupestris populations and AMOVA
Average category probability after 37000 sweeps.
Rows 1-30, cultivated samples;
Rows 31-60, wild samples;
Rows 61-108, putative hybrids.
Red = Pure cultivated;
Green = Pure wild;
Blue = F1;
Pink = F2;
Light brown = Backcross with cultivated;
Dark brown = Backcross with wild.
Project for Phase VIII (2009-2013) of ECPGR
of the Brassica Working Group
Brassica wild species
An European core collection of about 26 accessions of wild
Brassica species was set up by the contribution of several
EU genebanks
These have been characterized and evaluated for several traits,
such as bio-morphological, oil content, nutraceutical compounds, and
by some SSr primers
ECPGR Brassica Working Group project
Putative SSr primer for MADS box genes
Sign
P2
P3
P5
P6
P7
Markers
BoTHL1
BoAP1
PBCGSSRBo39
BoPLD1
BoABI1
Primer forward
GCCAAGGAGGAAATCGAAG
GGAGGAACGACCTTGATT
AACGCATCCATCCTCACTTC
GACCACCGACTCCGATCTC
TATCAGGGTTTCCTGGGTTG
Primer revers
AAGTGTCAATAAGGCAACAAGG
GCCAAAATATACTATGCGTCT
TAAACCAGCTCGTTCGGTTC
AGACAAGCAAAATGCAAGGAA
GTGAACAAGAAGAAAAGAGAGCC
Tetrasomy ascertained for BoAP1 SSR primer for some
genotypes of crop wild relatives of Brassica widespread
in Sicily
Allele frequency of different alleles observed for Bo AP1 SSr primer
Mediterranean
Brassica
diversity
will
provide you an interesting backdrop for
discussions
individuating,
and
debate
delineating
towards
and
consolidating new research directions for
future agriculture innovation.
Thank you for your attention