Genetic diversity and clonal variation within the main Sicilian olive cultivars based on morphological traits and microsatellite markers

The richness of Olea europaea (L.) genetic resources in Sicily is well documented. In the last 30 years, mostof the local cultivars, landraces and ecotypes have been gathered together in a large ex-situ collection,containing more than 300 genotypes. In this study, 45 putative clones of the main Sicilian olive cultivarswere characterized morphologically using microsatellite markers to unambiguously identify possiblesuperior genotypes. The microsatellites employed were polymorphic (observed heterozygosity = 0.71;polymorphic information content = 0.59), discriminated 52% of the genotypes and enabled the detectionof intra-cultivar polymorphism, derived from both somatic mutations, indicating th…

Predicting olive flowering phenology with phenoclimatic models

In plants, day length and temperature are the major climatic factors that affect the transition from a phenological phase to the next one. Non-linear models, such as growing degree hours (GDH), have been successfully used to calculate thermal time required for spring bud burst in deciduous fruit trees. In this experiment, temperature records and blooming dates of olive trees in different years and for 10 different sites in the Italian territory were recorded. Olive booming time was correlated to the amount of (GDH) accumulated from the date of bud rest onset, calculated as the day when the maximum negative chilling units accumulation was reached (UTAH Model), to full bloom. The GDH model wa…

Early bearing and vegetative growth of 153 Sicilian olive accessions

In 2014, an olive germplasm collection was established in south-western Sicily, Italy. The collection included 153 Sicilian accessions and 3 international varieties (reference), each with 7 trees, spaced at 5×2 m and trained to hedgerow system. The aim of the trial was to study early growth and yield responses of the accessions to super-high planting density (SHD). Trunk cross sectional area, tree height, pruning weights, shoot positioning, blooming and fruit yield (kg tree-1) were measured in 2015 and 2016. Based on trunk growth and amount of prunings, the 153 accessions were separated into four categories of vigor as it follows: very high vigor (6 accessions), high vigor (13), medium vigo…

Horticultural performance of 23 Sicilian olive genotypes in hedgerow systems: Vegetative growth, productive potential and oil quality

Abstract The super high density (SHD) model is a new olive growing system characterized by earlier and higher yields, fully mechanized harvesting and reduced orchard management costs. Until recently all commercial SHD orchards were planted primarily with three varieties: ‘Arbequina’, ‘Arbosana’ and ‘Koroneiki’. To increase variety diversity, broaden available olive oil chemical and organoleptic profiles, and olive oils for marketing, minor local varieties should be evaluated for adaptability to the SHD system. This study compares multiple Sicilian native genotypes to the three current cultivars ‘Arbequina’, ‘Arbosana’ and ‘Koroneiki’. The cumulative fruit and oil production, trunk-cross sec…

Toward the valorization of olive (Olea europaea var. europaea L.) biodiversity: horticultural performance of seven Sicilian cultivars in a hedgerow planting system

Abstract An intense survey of the Sicilian’s olive growing areas for autochthonous germplasm, mainly represented by centennials olive trees (Olea europaea var. europaea L.) apparently older then III centuries, started at the beginning of the 1980s and resulted in the selection of more than 150 cultivars and accessions. This germplasm was propagated in a nursery, by grafting onto seedlings of Olea europaea L., and planted in an experimental orchard, in an olive district located in the South-west of the Island, where they were evaluated for over 30 years and selected for their early bearing, high and constant productivity, as well as high oil content of the fruits and excellent chemical (olei…

Schnittlinien Zwischen Stadt und Land. Rural-urban intersections. Between Contemporary urban and rural spaces

From December to April 2015 I was in Hannover for a postdoctoral period founded by DAAD. I was continued a study about contemporary territories and villages, started at University of Palermo and regarding western Sicilian areas. I found Jörg Schröder’s researches (LUH - Chair for Regional Building and Urban Planning) a lush field to compare cases and methods. In that period Prof. Schröder with his team were studying Hamburg Metropolitan Region (Regiobranding - Branding of rural-urban regions through cultural landscape characteristics). I participated in the surveys in Steinburg district, at the mouth of the Elbe. An agricultural area large more than 50,000 hectares has been observed. The ur…

Mannitol-producing tobacco exposed to varying levels of water, light, temperature and paraquat

Transgenic mannitol-producing (+mtlD) and wild-type (-mtlD) tobacco plants were exposed to water deficit, varying light intensities, low temperatures, and paraquat applications to test whether mannitol was involved in protection against abiotic stresses. In the water deficit experiment, -mtlD and +mtlD plants were fully irrigated [100% evapotranspiration (ET)] or received 25% ET for 40 d. Water deficit reduced the relative water content (RWC) of both types of plant starting on day 22 and the total stem length (TSL) of -mtlD 25% ET plants after 11 d, whereas TSL of +mtlD 25% ET was reduced only after 34 d. After 30 days of water deficit, a higher percentage of mature foliage was retained by …

2+2=7. If the project improves its parts

The International Open City Summer School of Piacenza 2015 involved the participants in the design of a spread museum of the agriculture between rural and urban areas, crossing the old town of Piacenza. The submitted project, processed in that workshop, is an occasion to call in question the different scales of the design and some linked themes like the measure, the porosity and the permeability of the architecture and the town. Within the design of the museum, the experimentation of an “intermediate scale” reached us to the need of the architecture as connection of various parts, thus to the difference between mending and making something new. At the end, the challenge is that the sum of t…

Research on conversion of Carrizo citrange [C. sinensis (L.) Osb. × P. trifoliata (L.) Raf.] synthetic seeds.

Organogenesis and encapsulation of in vitro-derived propagules of Carrizo citrange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osb. × Poncirius trifoliata (L.) Raf]

Due to widespread polyembryony, Citrus rootstocks are usually propagated by open-pollinated seed germination, although micropropagation offers many advantages. Encapsulation technology has recently attracted the interest of researchers in the field of plant propagation because it combines the advantages of zygotic or gamic seeds with those of micropropagation. In this study, we examined the encapsulation of Carrizo citrange uninodal microcuttings (3–4 mm long) and evaluated the influence of the calcium alginate coating, a short time storage at cold temperature, and different sowing substrates on the viability and regrowth of the explants. A secondary aim was to develop an efficient protocol…

Simultaneous worlds. A museum six kilometres long: its roof is the sky; its walls are the town

The scientific committee of the “OC Summer School” inviting the participants to design a spread museum of agriculture in Piacenza, between urban and rural areas, provided an opportunity to reasoning about some dichotomies. Hence, in this text, the project processed in the three weeks of the workshop more than a solution will be consider as a spark that feed a narration between some simultaneous cultural worlds of the architecture: town and museum, inside and outside, private and public, rural and urban.

The Power of the Young Town

In Italy, after the Second World War, according to Fanfani and Tupini’s laws (1949), INA-casa and its procuring entities’ ventures made a motor of urban renewal from the enthusiasm and the commitment of many entrepreneurs and public administrators. In Palermo, the agricultural lands began to include new neighbourhoods that quickly merged with the historic and nineteenth-twentieth century centre. In the fifties, between the town and its geographic limits (the mountains of the Corona dei Colli) a beltway has been hypothesized. It was a founding board (Culotta, 2005). In the sixties, it was the spine of an expanding urban fabric that absorbed citrus groves, vineyards, olive groves, field of fl…

Morphogenic responsein vitroof epicotyl segments ofCitrus macrophylla

Abstract The influence of explant orientation, contact of the cut surface with the medium, type of growth regulators and distance of epicotyl cuttings from the cotyledonary node (the part of the seedling where the cotyledons are attached) on in vitro morphogenesis of Citrus macrophylla (alemow) was evaluated. Maximum number of shoots was induced from epicotyl segments placed horizontally.