Pomegranate morpho-chemodiversity: computational investigations based on in-vivo and in-vitro screening

Assia Ejjilani; Karim Houmanat; Hafida Hanine; Lahcen Hssaini; Kaoutar Elfazazi; Francisca Hernandez; Ilham Hmid; Rachid Razouk

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09345

Pomegranate morpho-chemodiversity: computational investigations based on in-vivo and in-vitro screening

Heliyon. 2022 Apr 27;8(5):e09345. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09345. eCollection 2022 May.

Authors

Assia Ejjilani^{1

2}, Karim Houmanat¹, Hafida Hanine², Lahcen Hssaini¹, Kaoutar Elfazazi¹, Francisca Hernandez³, Ilham Hmid², Rachid Razouk¹

Affiliations

¹ National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA), Morocco.
² Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Laboratory of Bioprocess and Bio-Interfaces, University of Sutan Moulay Slimane, Beni-Mellal, Morocco.
³ Dpto. Producción Vegetal y Microbiología, Grupo de Investigación de Producción Vegetal y Tecnología, cuela Politécnica Superior de Orihuela (Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche), Ctra. de Beniel, km 3,2, E- 03312 Orihuela, Alicante, Spain.

Abstract

Pomegranate tree is cultivated since ancient times in Morocco, where a high genetic diversity is hosted mainly in traditional agroecosystems. Over the past decade, it regained importance through extension of cultivated area, but remains thus far little valued. To date, its genetic variability and chemodiversity have gone unheeded for many reasons, some of which are related to previous agricultural strategies. In this context, the present study aimed to screen an ex-situ collection of seven local cultivars and seven exotic varieties with regard to 50 fruit morphometric and biochemical descriptors. The results showed statistically significant variability within accessions (p < 0.01), based on all aforementioned traits, except for seed weight, with coefficients of variation greater than 49%. This indicated a high level of phenotypic diversity among the studied genetic pool. The 3D scatter plot built based on the principal component analysis displayed an interesting discrimination with regard to the genotypes' geographic origins with a total variance of about 50%. According to morphometric based-heatmap, four main clusters were identified distinguishing the typicality of some local cultivars compared to exotic varieties, mainly 'Sefri', 'Bzou', 'Chioukhi' and 'Djeibi'. Traits having the highest impact on discrimination between accessions were, by order of importance, fruit weight and its dimensions, juice yield, aril yield, single aril diameter, soluble sugars (glucose and fructose) along with contents in some organic acids, including citric, palmitic, linoleic and malic acids. Potential statistically significant correlations were spotted through bi-dimensional heatmap analysis, particularly between the fruit size, shape and peel traits along with some biochemical attributes. As many areas of the species chemodiversity and functional properties are still needed to be investigated further, the results of the present study are of great interest for the species valorization and for breeding programs.

Keywords: Fruit quality traits; Juice proprieties; Lipo-biochemical attributes; Phenotypic diversity; Punica granatum L..