Abdollatif Sheikhi

Persian walnut (Juglans regia L.) is cultivated globally for its large edible nuts, which have a dehiscent hull that simplifies nut harvest and a papery inner shell or septum that allows easy kernel extraction. Here, we use reduced-representation sequencing to genotype the largest panel of J. regia ever assembled (n = 2,850) and evaluate its evolutionary history and population structure. Haplotype length analysis and genome-wide trait association identify a selective sweep on chromosome 14 associated with the hard septum characteristic, providing new insight into the origin and domestication of J. regia. A YABBY transcription factor in the swept region shows exon skipping that causes frame-shift and deletion of the YABBY domain and is enriched in J. regia hull and shell tissues. These results suggest both a mechanism underlying walnut domestication and a blueprint for domesticating other tree nuts in the Juglandaceae.

The production and consumption of nuts are increasing in the world due to strong economic returns and the nutritional value of their products. With the increasing role and importance given to nuts (i.e., walnuts, hazelnut, pistachio, pecan, almond) in a balanced and healthy diet and their benefits to human health, breeding of the nuts species has also been stepped up. Most recent fruit breeding programs have focused on scion genetic improvement. However, the use of locally adapted grafted rootstocks also enhanced the productivity and quality of tree fruit crops. Grafting is an ancient horticultural practice used in nut crops to manipulate scion phenotype and productivity and overcome biotic and abiotic stresses. There are complex rootstock breeding objectives and physiological and molecular aspects of rootstock–scion interactions in nut crops. In this review, we provide an overview of these, considering the mechanisms involved in nutrient and water uptake, regulation of phytohormones, and rootstock influences on the scion molecular processes, including long-distance gene silencing and trans-grafting. Understanding the mechanisms resulting from rootstock × scion × environmental interactions will contribute to developing new rootstocks with resilience in the face of climate change, but also of the multitude of diseases and pests.

Background: Predicting impact of plant tissue culture media components on explant proliferation is important especially in commercial scale for optimizing efficient culture media. Previous studies have focused on predicting the impact of media components on explant growth via conventional multi-layer perceptron neural networks (MLPNN) and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) methods. So, there is an opportunity to find more efficient algorithms such as Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) and Gene Expression Programming (GEP). Here, a novel algorithm, i.e. GEP which has not been previously applied in plant tissue culture researches was compared to RBFNN and MLR for the first time. Pear rootstocks (Pyrodwarf and OHF) were used as case studies on predicting the effect of minerals and some hormones in the culture medium on proliferation indices.Results: Generally, RBFNN and GEP showed extremely higher performance accuracy than the MLR. Moreover, GEP models as the most accurate models were optimized using genetic algorithm (GA). The improvement was mainly due to the RBFNN and GEP strong estimation capability and their superior tolerance to experimental noises or improbability.Conclusions: GEP as the most robust and accurate prospecting procedure to achieve the highest proliferation quality and quantity has also the benefit of being easy to use.

The effects of passive- and active-modified atmosphere packaging (passive- and active-MAP) were investigated on the physio-chemical and quality attributes of fresh in-hull pistachios stored at 4 ± 1 °C and 90 ± 5% R.H. Fresh pistachios were packaged under each of the following gas combinations: active-MAP1 (AMA1) (5% O₂ + 5% CO₂), AMA2 (5% O₂ + 25% CO₂), AMA3 (5% O₂ + 45% CO₂), AMA4 (2.5% O₂ + 5% CO₂), AMA5 (2.5% O₂ + 25% CO₂), and AMA6 (2.5% O₂ + 45% CO₂), all balanced with N₂, as well as passive-MAP (PMA) with ambient air (21% O₂ + 0.03% CO₂ + 78% N₂). Changes in quality parameters were evaluated after 0, 15, 30 and 45 days of storage. Results demonstrated that AMA6 and PMA had significantly lower (7.96 Log CFU g⁻¹) and higher (9.81 Log CFU g⁻¹) aerobic mesophilic bacteria counts than the other treatments. However, the AMA6 treatment decreased, kernel chlorophyll and carotenoid content, hull antioxidant capacity, and anthocyanin content. The PMA treatment produced a significant weight loss, 0.18%, relative to the other treatments. The active-MAP treatments were more effective than the passive-MAP in decreasing weight loss, microbial counts, kernel total chlorophyll (Kernel TCL), and kernel carotenoid content (Kernel CAC). The postharvest quality of fresh in-hull pistachios was maintained best by the AMA3 (5% O₂ + 45% CO₂ + 50% N₂) treatment.

Background: The effects of passive modified‐atmosphere packaging (passive‐MAP) on the postharvest quality of de‐hulled fresh pistachios (Pistacia vera L. cv. Kerman) stored at cold temperature (0 ± 0.5 °C) and 90 ± 1% relative humidity was investigated with fruits under ambient air condition as the control treatment. The fruit quality parameters measured included kernel firmness, color values (L^*, a^*, b^*, h°, and C^*), weight loss, fungal decay and marketability, ethylene production, respiration rate, and sensory characteristics at 0, 30, 60, and 105 days of storage. The carbon dioxide (CO₂) and oxygen (O₂) concentrations in the package headspace were monitored during storage.RESULTS: A modified atmosphere of 0.95–3.35% O₂ and 23.17–29.82% CO₂ was achieved in the passive‐MAP treatment. Fruit respiration rates increased significantly relative to controls throughout storage (P ≤ 0.01). However, storage had no significant effect on ethylene production rates. Additionally, passive‐MAP‐stored fruits maintained firmness, shell lightness, kernel color, and sensory quality with minimum weight loss and fungal decay, compared with the control.CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate storage life of fresh pistachios in passive‐MAP can be extended up to 105 days, compared with 30 days in ambient conditions. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry