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Tropical fruit flies are considered among the most economically important invasive species detected in temperate areas of the United States and the European Union. Detections often trigger quarantine and eradication programs that are conducted without a holistic understanding of the threat posed. Weather-driven physiologically-based demographic models are used to estimate the geographic range, relative abundance, and threat posed by four tropical tephritid fruit flies (Mediterranean fruit fly, melon fly, oriental fruit fly, and Mexican fruit fly) in North and Central America, and the European-Mediterranean region under extant and climate change weather (RCP8.5 and A1B scenarios). Most temperate areas under tropical fruit fly propagule pressure have not been suitable for establishment, but suitability is predicted to increase in some areas with climate change. To meet this ongoing challenge, investments are needed to collect sound biological data to develop mechanistic models to predict the geographic range and relative abundance of these and other invasive species, and to put eradication policies on a scientific basis. Gutierrez et al. model the potential geographic range in temperate regions of four species of invasive tropical fruit flies under extant weather and climate change using physiologically-based demographic models. Their models show increased habitat suitability for many areas under climate change.

Plants are primary resources for oxygen and foods whose production is fundamental for our life. However, diseases and pests may interfere with plant growth and cause a significant reduction of both the quality and quantity of agriculture products. Increasing agricultural productivity is crucial for poverty reduction and food security improvements. For this reason, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development gives a central role to agriculture by promoting a strong technological innovation for advancing sustainable practices at the plant level. To accomplish this aim, recently, wearable sensors and flexible electronics have been extended from humans to plants for measuring elongation, microclimate, and stressing factors that may affect the plant’s healthy growth. Unexpectedly, fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), which are very popular in health monitoring applications ranging from civil infrastructures to the human body, are still overlooked for the agriculture sector. In this work, for the first time, plant wearables based on FBG technology are proposed for the continuous and simultaneous monitoring of plant growth and environmental parameters (i.e., temperature and humidity) in real settings. The promising results demonstrated the feasibility of FBG-based sensors to work in real situations by holding the promise to advance continuous and accurate plant health growth monitoring techniques.

Summary Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an important horticultural crop and one of the most widely grown vegetables from the Solanaceae family. It was domesticated from a wild, prickly progenitor carrying small, round, non‐anthocyanic fruits. We obtained a novel, highly contiguous genome assembly of the eggplant ‘67/3’ reference line, by Hi‐C retrofitting of a previously released short read‐ and optical mapping‐based assembly. The sizes of the 12 chromosomes and the fraction of anchored genes in the improved assembly were comparable to those of a chromosome‐level assembly. We resequenced 23 accessions of S. melongena representative of the worldwide phenotypic, geographic, and genetic diversity of the species, and one each from the closely related species Solanum insanum and Solanum incanum. The eggplant pan‐genome contained approximately 51.5 additional megabases and 816 additional genes compared with the reference genome, while the pan‐plastome showed little genetic variation. We identified 53 selective sweeps related to fruit color, prickliness, and fruit shape in the nuclear genome, highlighting selection leading to the emergence of present‐day S. melongena cultivars from its wild ancestors. Candidate genes underlying the selective sweeps included a MYBL1 repressor and CHALCONE ISOMERASE (for fruit color), homologs of Arabidopsis GLABRA1 and GLABROUS INFLORESCENCE STEMS2 (for prickliness), and orthologs of tomato FW2.2, OVATE, LOCULE NUMBER/WUSCHEL, SUPPRESSOR OF OVATE, and CELL SIZE REGULATOR (for fruit size/shape), further suggesting that selection for the latter trait relied on a common set of orthologous genes in tomato and eggplant. Significance Statement Chromosome conformation capture (Hi‐C) was applied for improving a short read‐based genome assembly of eggplant (Solanum melongena). The enhanced assembly, combined with resequencing data of accessions representing the genetic and phenotypic diversity of the species and of its closest wild relatives, allowed the construction of the first eggplant pan‐genome and pan‐plastome and the identification of selective sweeps and candidate genes likely involved in eggplant domestication and breeding.

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) represents the third most important crop of the Solanaceae family and is an important component of our daily diet. A population of 164 F6 recombinant inbred lines (RILs), derived from two eggplant lines differing with respect to several key agronomic traits, “305E40” and “67/3,” was grown to the commercial maturation stage, and fruits were harvested, separated into peel and flesh, and subjected to liquid chromatography Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS) analysis. Through a combination of untargeted and targeted metabolomics approaches, a number of metabolites belonging to the glycoalkaloid, anthocyanin, and polyamine classes and showing a differential accumulation in the two parental lines and F1 hybrid were identified. Through metabolic profiling of the RILs, we identified several metabolomic quantitative trait loci (mQTLs) associated with the accumulation of those metabolites. Each of the metabolic traits proved to be controlled by one or more quantitative trait loci (QTLs); for most of the traits, one major mQTL (phenotypic variation explained [PVE] ≥ 10%) was identified. Data on mQTL mapping and dominance–recessivity relationships of measured compounds in the parental lines and F1 hybrid, as well as an analysis of the candidate genes underlying the QTLs and of their sequence differences in the two parental lines, suggested a series of candidate genes underlying the traits under study.

Sommario 1. Introduzione 3. Progetti 3.1.1 Fonte di finanziamento 3.1.2 Ambiti di ricerca 3.1.3 Repository 3.1.4 Personale 3. Competenze 3.1.1 Ambiti 3.1.2 ALTRO 3.1.3 COMPETENZE VERTICALI 3.1.4 SUGGERIMENTI 5. CONCLUSIONI ALLEGATI A. PROGETTI PER AMBITI DI RIFERIMENTO B. RICOGNIZIONE CAWI (COMPUTER ASSISTED WEB INTERVIEW) C. SCHEDE INVIATE PER LA COMPILAZIONE ON-LINE

Carotenoids are indispensable for human health, required as precursors of vitamin A and efficient antioxidants. However, these plant pigments that play a vital role in photosynthesis are represented at insufficient levels in edible parts of several crops, which creates a need for increasing their content or optimizing their composition through biofortification. In particular, vitamin A deficiency, a severe health problem affecting the lives of millions in developing countries, has triggered the development of a series of high-provitamin A crops, including Golden Rice as the best-known example. Further carotenoid-biofortified crops have been generated by using genetic engineering approaches or through classical breeding. In this review, we depict carotenoid metabolism in plants and provide an update on the development of carotenoid-biofortified plants and their potential to meet needs and expectations. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility of using natural variation for carotenoid biofortification and the potential of gene editing tools. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Carotenoids recent advances in cell and molecular biology edited by Johannes von Lintig and Loredana Quadro.

[EN] Background The use of sequencing and genotyping platforms has undergone dramatic improvements, enabling the generation of a wealth of genomic information. Despite this progress, the availability of high-quality genomic DNA (gDNA) in sufficient concentrations is often a main limitation, especially for third-generation sequencing platforms. A variety of DNA extraction methods and commercial kits are available. However, many of these are costly and frequently give either low yield or low-quality DNA, inappropriate for next generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. Here, we describe a fast and inexpensive DNA extraction method (SILEX) applicable to a wide range of plant species and tissues. Results SILEX is a high-throughput DNA extraction protocol, based on the standard CTAB method with a DNA silica matrix recovery, which allows obtaining NGS-quality high molecular weight genomic plant DNA free of inhibitory compounds. SILEX was compared with a standard CTAB extraction protocol and a common commercial extraction kit in a variety of species, including recalcitrant ones, from different families. In comparison with the other methods, SILEX yielded DNA in higher concentrations and of higher quality. Manual extraction of 48 samples can be done in 96 min by one person at a cost of 0.12 euro/sample of reagents and consumables. Hundreds of tomato gDNA samples obtained with either SILEX or the commercial kit were successfully genotyped with Single Primer Enrichment Technology (SPET) with the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. Furthermore, DNA extracted fromSolanum elaeagnifoliumusing this protocol was assessed by Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), obtaining a suitable size ranges for most sequencing platforms that required high-molecular-weight DNA such as Nanopore or PacBio. Conclusions A high-throughput, fast and inexpensive DNA extraction protocol was developed and validated for a wide variety of plants and tissues. SILEX offers an easy, scalable, efficient and inexpensive way to extract DNA for various next-generation sequencing applications including SPET and Nanopore among others. This research has been funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 677379 (Linking genetic resources, genomes and phenotypes of Solanaceous crops; G2P-SOL). David Alonso is grateful to Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for a predoctoral (PAID-01-16) contract under the Programa de Ayudas de Investigacion y Desarrollo initiative. Mariola Plazas is grateful to Generalitat Valenciana and Fondo Social Europeo for a postdoctoral grant (APOSTD/2018/014). Pietro Gramazio is grateful to Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for a Postdoctoral Grant (P19105, FY2019 JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research in Japan (Standard)). The Spanish Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte funded a predoctoral fellowship granted to Edgar Garcia-Fortea (FPU17/02389).