Introduction. There has been increasing interest in the domestication potential of indigenous fruit trees. Nevertheless, our understanding of how these species’ abundance and yield of fruit is altered by ecological conditions, which is critical to foresee realistic sustainable management plans, is limited. Materials and methods. We used local ecological knowledge, presence / absence data and quantitative methods to examine the effect of ecological conditions on the distribution, abundance and yields of tamarind trees (T. indica) across three ecological regions in Benin, West Africa. Results and discussion. Rural communities’ knowledge on the species’ ecological range was congruent with scientific findings. The natural distribution of tamarind individuals was limited to the Sudanian and the Sudano-Guinean regions and their density declined with increasing moisture, being highest (2 trees·km-2) in the Sudanian region and lowest in the Guineo-Congolian region (scarce). On the other hand, fruit and pulp mass and number of seeds per fruit varied significantly, being higher in the Guineo-Congolian wetter region. However, no significant variation occurred among ecological regions for estimated overall fruit yields per tree. This might indicate that tamarind trees tend to invest in a small number of very large fruits under wetter conditions and a very large number of small fruits under dryer conditions. Conclusion. The results showed that semi-arid lands would best suit T. indica domestication. Nevertheless, its productivity could be higher under wetter conditions. Because of its affinity for gallery forests, we recommend thorough studies on its capacity to survive the increasing drought in its current ecological range.

Introduction. Consumption of Physalis fruits is quite recent and the products are poorly known among consumers. This plant has been known for a long time as an ornamental in Europe, for at least 200 years. Traceability is increasingly becoming important across the agri-food industry; however, at the present time, the traceability of this fruit is only documentary. In case of doubt or fraud, no standardized analysis can determine the geographical origin of the fruits. Materials and methods. In order to discover the relationship between the fungal communities of the fruit and their geographical origins, 28S rDNA-PCR-DGGE was used to analyze the variation in fungal communities in three species of Physalis fruit (Physalis ixocarpa Brot., Physalis pruinosa L. and Physalis peruviana L.) from Egypt, Uganda and Colombia. Results. Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprints of 28S ribosomal DNA (28S rDNA) analyzed by multivariate analysis could distinguish different fruit origins by their fungal communities. Conclusion. We propose the PCR-DGGE method as a new traceability tool which provides fruit in general, and Physalis in particular, with a unique barcode for each country by using 28S rDNA fingerprinting of fungi.

Introduction. Knowledge of tephritid diversity in Senegal was poor before 2004, so PIP-COLEACP and CIRAD, in collaboration with Cérès-DPV, carried out, in 2004, trapping for preliminary detection of fruit flies in six orchards in the Niayes zone. Materials and methods. We selected three mixed mango orchards and three homogeneous mango orchards in this zone. In each orchard, we used three attractants: Terpinyl acetate (Ter), Trimedlure (Tri) and Torula (Tor). Traps were serviced weekly. Results. We captured 77 642 fruit flies in more than 4 months including mango season; they were represented by 18 identified fly species, including ten Ceratitis, six Dacus and two Bactrocera species. Two very serious pests were identified with the confirmation of Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) for cucurbit crops and the detection of B. invadens Drew Tsuruta & White for fruit crops. The two most abundant species of Ceratitis were C. cosyra and C. silvestrii. Discussion. We captured more fruit fly species in mixed mango orchards than in homogeneous mango orchards. Bactrocera invadens was also more abundant in mixed orchards, probably because of its polyphagous status. This new invasive species, B. invadens, can have many hosts in mixed mango orchards, enhancing its breeding potential. Conclusion. Effective management to deal with this alien species requires: (i) improvement of basic and applied research; (ii) an effective IPM package; (iii) an area-wide management approach; (iv) a sub-regional effort on the part of researchers, extension services, growers, exporters, farming associations and the different actors in fruit value chains (mainly mango).

Introduction. The aim of this study was to determine the ability of an electronic nose (e-nose) to predict the quality of nectarines and peaches, and, in particular, the aroma. Materials and methods. Four nectarine cultivars (‘María Dolce’, ‘Maillarlate’, ‘Nectaross’ and ‘Venus’) and one peach cultivar (‘Royal Glory’) were evaluated. The fruit was harvested ripe and the quality evaluations were carried out just one day after harvest. The intensity of the main descriptors of fruit quality was described, and fruits were subjected to an e-nose assessment. The sensory analysis and the e-nose results were presented through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). A multiple linear regression (MLR) was also used to create a predictive model for the attribute ‘aroma’ compared with the other sensory parameters and the most informative e-nose sensor data. Results and discussion. ‘Royal Glory’ and ‘María Dolce’ were placed in a separate cluster far from ‘Venus’, ‘Nectaross’ and ‘Maillarlate’. The result of the MLR included the attributes ‘acidity’, ‘sweetness’ and ‘acceptability’ in the model, and the data registered by sensor 6 of the e-nose (SnO2-sensor, RGTO Mo, 45 Å thick layer), which were those factors that best related to the aroma, reached a R2 of 0.48 and a mean square error (MSE) of 3.85. It was concluded that the e-nose is an instrument able to discriminate peach varieties through their aromatic features, which are among the descriptors that mainly determine acceptability by the peach consumer.

Introduction. Pomegranate fruit is a good source of bioactive compounds. Although data about the importance of pomegranates in human nutrition has increased extensively in the last years, the fruit physical and chemical characteristics of some Iranian pomegranate cultivars during fruit ripening have not been investigated in detail yet. Therefore, the evaluation of physicochemical characteristics of pomegranate fruit cv. ‘Rabbab-e-Fars’ at three different stages, from fruit set to ripening, was the aim of the present study. Materials and methods. Fruit fresh weight and volume, and peel, aril, juice and seed percentage were measured as physical features and total soluble solids, pH, titrable acidity, ascorbic acid, total sugars, anthocyanins, phenolics and tannins, condensed tannins, and antioxidant activity in the juice were evaluated as the chemical properties. Results. The highest percentage of aril (57.86%) and juice (48.01%) and lowest percentage of peel (42.13%) and seed (10.49%) were observed in 140-day-old fruits. A significant increase in concentrations of total soluble solids and total sugars were recorded during fruit ripening. The ascorbic acid content decreased significantly, while the amount of total anthocyanins increased significantly with fruit maturity. Ripe fruit, which had a low titratable acidity (1.35 g·100 g-1 of fruit juice), showed a correspondingly high pH (3.23). The levels of total phenolics, total tannins, condensed tannins and antioxidant activity declined significantly during fruit ripening. Conclusion. Our results provide important information on the changes in physical and chemical properties of pomegranate fruit during ripening, which is very useful for determination of the fruit quality.

Introduction. The fruit and vegetable sector group of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) carried out a bibliometric analysis of INRA publications on fruits and vegetables produced between 2002 and 2006. While a previous study focused on scientific publications indexed by the Web of Science, this study took into account the remaining INRA publications, i.e., gray literature, technical papers and scientific papers not indexed by the Web of Science. Materials and methods. Different steps were taken to constitute and process a corpus of INRA researchers’ publication data. The citation corpus gathering bibliographic data was mainly constituted using the INRA institutional repository (ProdINRA). To ensure exhaustivity, a survey was carried out to collect INRA researchers’ publications. Due to the different types of publications involved, we had to develop an original method to constitute a complete database which could allow bibliometric analysis. The Sphinx Plus2 Survey program was used to analyze publications and Pajek software was used to visualize networks. Results. A total of 2,224 publications were authored by INRA between 2002 and 2006. We analyzed the typology of fruits and vegetables studied at INRA, the INRA research centers and research divisions involved, the main research topics, and the national and international partners of INRA authors. Graphic visualizations allowed an attractive presentation of relationships between authors within and outside INRA. Conclusion. This study led to the mapping of INRA fruit and vegetable research publications. It confirmed that INRA plays an active role in the field of fruit and vegetable research. French research is carried out in the main INRA research centers located in horticultural and/or fruit regions, particularly in South-Eastern France. Despite the fact that the nature of these publications provides less opportunity for co-publication, this study highlights the relationships between INRA and French partners or foreign countries.

Des Progrès considérables ont été réalisés dans certains domaines de la Photosynthèse au cours des toutes dernières années. Ces progrès ont non seulement permis d’éclaircir le mécanisme de certaines réactions de la Photosynthèse, mais encore ils nous obligent à modifier la conception même que nous avions de cette fonction physiologique capitale. Cela est si vrai qu’on hésiterait maintenant à définir la Photosynthèse comme la biosynthèse de substances carbonées au moyen de l’énergie lumineuse à partir du gaz carbonique de l’air!

L’un des buts de cet article sera de montrer que la Photosynthèse, au sens strict du mot, est davantage une assimilation de phosphate inorganique que de gaz carbonique. Nous nous attacherons moins au mécanisme détaillé des diverses réactions qu’à la place qu’elles occupent dans le concept actuel de la Photosynthèse.