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Representatives of three species of strawberries (Fragaria virginiana, F. chiloensis and F. ×ananassa) were evaluated for antioxidant capacity, scavenging capacity for reactive oxygen species (ROO·, ·OH, 1O2 and O2 .-), and inhibitory effect on proliferation of A549 human lung epithelial cancer cells. Differences among the strawberry genotypes were observed for all three qualities. High antioxidant and scavenging capacities were found in `CFRA 0982', `JP 95-1-1', NC 95-19-1 and RH 30. Lowest antioxidant and scavenging capacities were found in `Allstar'. There was also a relationship between scavenging capacity and the inhibition of cancer cell proliferation. The correlations (R 2) between the scavenging capacities for the reactive oxygen species and the inhibition of cancer cell proliferation were 0.8074, 0.8279, 0.7862 and 0.7761 for ROO·, ·OH, 1O2 and O2 .-, respectively. These results suggest that antioxidants, specifically their scavenging capacities, may play an important role in the antiproliferative activity of strawberries. This study also identified strawberry germplasm of value in developing cultivars useful for cancer prevention.
‘Navaho’ and ‘Apache’ blackberry plants were maintained at 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, or 35 °C in growth chambers to determine optimum temperature for budbreak and flowering (fewest days to flowering). In a separate experiment, bloom dates were observed for a collection of 117 Rubus genotypes over four seasons. Using these phenological data, predictive linear and curvilinear models were tested using a range of cardinal temperatures. The growth chamber experiment indicated optimum temperatures for bloom were 25.6 °C for ‘Apache’ and 29.2 °C for ‘Navaho’. For the field observations, time to bloom was best defined by a linear model with base and optimum temperatures of 6 and 25 °C and a curvilinear model defined by base and optimum temperatures of 4 and 27 °C, respectively. Based on the linear growing degree hour (GDH) model, heat units to bloom varied among cultivars in the collection from 9,200 GDH for ‘Chickasaw’ to 18,900 GDH for ‘Merton Thornless’.