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(USDA) Plant Introduction (PI) 401734 produced significantly higher numbers of wild-type progenies ( Havey et al., 2004 ). A nuclear locus, Paternal sorting of mitochondria ( Psm ), controls sorting to the wild-type phenotype in progenies from crosses
Abstract
A method is described and test results reported for sorting blueberries with low-frequency vibration. Separation was dependent on fruit firmness which is affected by roughness of handling and other softening factors.
Firmness, as measured by compressing blueberries 0.2 cm between flat plates, statistically explained 58 to 72% of the variation in frequency for removal of berries from a vibrating trough with constant energy input. When comparing ripeness with frequency for sorting, light transmittance (∆OD; 740-800 nm) values, which indicate anthocyanin pigment concentration, explained only 10% of the variation in sorting frequency.
Berries of several cultivars and harvest dates were vibration sorted and tested for susceptibility to decay. Sorting frequency statistically explained 75% of the variation in decay level. Thus, the vibration method should be suitable for sorting blueberries into groups of different shelf life.
Abstract
Spectral curves of fresh berries of both bronze and black muscadine grapes representing a wide range of ripenesses were obtained with a multipurpose spectrophotometer at the Pioneering Instrumentation Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Beltsville, Md. Using these curves, wavelength-pairs of 546-610 nm for bronze and 740-800 nm for black grapes were selected. A Berrymatic (high-speed fibre-optic sorter) developed for sorting blueberries was fitted with pairs of narrow band interference filters of the above wavelengths. Several tests over a 2-year period indicated that both black and bronze grapes can be light-sorted according to ripeness, as confirmed by destructive analyses of pH, soluble solids and acids in the fruits. Berry size and orientations of the berry on the light-sorter with respect to the light path influenced readings.
Color sorting was performed to upgrade seed quality by removal of fluorescent coated seeds. The fluorescent coating was attributed to sinapine leakage from nonviable seeds. Nine seedlots, three seedlots each of cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. Capitata group), broccoli, and cauliflower (B. oleracea L. Botrytis group) were custom coated. Seed samples were pretreated before coating with or without 1.0% NaOCl for 10 minutes to enhance leakage. All samples revealed a percentage of seeds with fluorescence. The light emission from selected fluorescent and nonfluorescent coated seeds was quantified by fiber-optic spectrophotometry. Fluorescence was expressed from 400 to 560 nm, with peak emission being from 430 to 450 nm. These data confirmed our visual interpretation of blue-green fluorescence. The ratio of light emission from fluorescent compared to nonfluorescent coated seeds ranged from 4.5 to 7.0 for all samples and averaged 5.7. An ultraviolet (UV) color sorter was employed to separate fluorescent (reject) from nonfluorescent (accept) coated seeds. The percentage of nonfluorescent coated seeds (averaged over seedlot and NaOCl pretreatment) before and after sorting was 89.5% and 95.9%, respectively. Therefore, color sorting was able to remove a high percentage of fluorescent coated seeds with an average loss (rejection of nonfluorescent coated seeds) of 6%. An increase in the percent germination was recorded in eight of the nine seedlots following color sorting, and the greatest improvement was obtained with seedlots of medium quality. Germination of three medium quality lots was increased by 10 to 15 percentage points. The average increase in germination with or without NaOCl pretreatment was 8.2 and 5.5 percentage points, respectively. In conclusion, the germination of Brassica seedlots could be improved by separating (removing) fluorescent from nonfluorescent coated seeds. UV color sorting technology was employed to demonstrate that seed conditioning could be conducted on a commercial basis to upgrade seed quality.
Abstract
Regardless of season, location, harvest date, or size, ‘Wolcott’ blueberry fruits sorted with transmitted light according to their anthocyanin (ACY) contents were reasonably well separated for quality as expressed by pH, titratable acid (AC), soluble solids (SS) and the SS/AC ratio. Quality of fruits of the same ACY class differed according to cultivar (‘Wolcott’, ‘Berkeley’, and ‘Jersey’). AC content of the fruit decreased slightly during the season regardless of ACY class or cultivar. This consistent reduction in AC as the season progressed was accompanied by increases in the SS/AC ratios and development of decay. Location of harvest (farm to farm) influences SS somewhat. A long harvest interval produced a small but consistent effect on all quality parameters.
Petiole protoplasts of the sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] cultivars Red Jewel and Georgia Jet formed cell walls within 24 hours and divided in 2 to 3 days. Pretreating enzyme solutions with activated charcoal increased the viability and division frequency of protoplasts. Culture of protoplast-donor plants in a medium containing STS did not affect plant growth, protoplasm yield, or viability, but did increase the division frequency. Culture of protoplasts for 24 hours in a medium containing DB, a cell wall synthesis inhibitor, or staining of protoplasts with FDA did not significantly affect division frequency. The division frequency of protoplasts cultured in liquid medium was significantly higher than that of protoplasts cultured in agarose-solidified medium. Cell cycle analysis of petioles and freshly isolated protoplasts showed that the latter has a significantly higher proportion of nuclei in G1 phase. Protoplasts did not initiate DNA synthesis or mitosis within the first 24 hours of culture. Low-frequency regeneration of shoots from protoplast-derived callus was accomplished on MS medium containing 1.0 mg ldnetin/liter when preceded by MS medium modified to contain only (in mg·liter-1) 800 NH4NO3, 1400 KNO3, 0.5 2,4-D, 0.5 kinetin, and 1.0 ABA. Roots produced from protoplast-derived callus formed adventitious shoots after 4 weeks on MS medium containing 2% sucrose, 0.02 mg kinetin/liter and 0.2% Gelrite. Secondary shoot formation from regenerated roots will be a more effective means of obtaining plants from protoplasts than direct shoot regeneration from callus. Chemical names used: silver thiosulfate (STS): 2.6-dichlorobenzonitrile (DB); fluorescein diacetate (FDA): 2.4-diacetate (FDA); 2.4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D); abscisic acid (ABA).
Studies based on X-ray photographs were conducted to predict the morphology of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) seedlings at transplanting stage. Currently, seed-lot quality of tomato seeds for growing commercial transplants is determined with grow-out tests in the greenhouse because the standard germination test fails to predict the percentage of normal or usable transplants (UTs). These grow-out tests, however, are difficult to standardize. An X-ray evaluation procedure is presented as an alternative. X-ray images nondestructively provide information on embryo size and morphology and the amount of endosperm and the area of free space. These parameters correlate well with the morphology of 14-day old seedlings. Cotyledon morphology has the highest correlation with the percentage of UTs. A test based on the evaluation of X-ray images, classifying the cotyledon morphology and seed free space, predicts the percentage of UTs more accurately than the currently used germination test. A second method based on an equation that uses the probabilities of all X-ray categories proportionally predicts the percentage of UTs of primed seeds more accurately than the first method. Selecting individual seeds based on X-ray images has the potential to raise the percentage of UTs of seed lots. On the average, the percentage of UTs of control seeds was 22% higher after hand selection based on X-ray evaluation. Primed seeds gave 12% higher results. Hence, X-ray analysis can predict seedling performance and enable the selection of high-quality seeds.
Internal bruising (IB) caused by handling impacts results in disruption of normal ripening in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) locular gel. It was selected as an injury indicator to investigate the effect of drop height (O, 10, 20, 30 cm) onto an unpadded surface and number of impacts (one or two) for three tomato cultivars. For mature-green (MG) tomatoes, significant incidence of IB (5% to 45%) was found in all cultivars for single drops on opposite sides of fruits from 20 cm; two drops on the same location from 20 cm caused 20% to 30% IB. Breaker-stage (BR) tomatoes were more sensitive to impacts than MG. Single drops from 10 cm on opposite sides of BR fruits caused 15% to 73% IB, depending on cultivar. Two drops on a single location from 10 cm caused 50% to 68% IB. `Sunny' was less susceptible to IB than `Solar Set' or `Cobia' (formerly NVH-4459).
To produce nonaploid Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki L.f.) by artificial hybridization, we surveyed the natural occurrence of unreduced (2n) pollen among hexaploid cultivars and sorted them from normal reduced (n) pollen. The sorted 2n pollen was crossed with a hexaploid female cultivar and the resultant embryos were rescued by in vitro culture techniques to obtain plantlets. Three out of six male-flower-bearing cultivars (2n = 6x = 90) produced 2n pollen at rates of 4.8% to 15.5% varying with the cultivar, which was estimated by both pollen size and flow cytometry. After sorting giant (2n) from normal pollen grains by using nylon mesh, they were crossed with a hexaploid female cultivar. The seeds obtained from pollination with normal pollen were perfect, but those obtained from pollination with giant pollen were mostly imperfect, with embryo growth being suspended at the globular stage. Although the rate of survival was very low, some embryos at the globular stage were rescued successfully and grown in vitro. Both flow cytometric analysis and chromosome counting proved that the plantlets obtained were nonaploid.
Firmness is a critical quality characteristic in kiwifruit [Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) C.F. Liang et A.R. Ferguson] marketing. The industry seeks a nondestructive method for firmness sorting. We measured sonic vibrational responses of 149 kiwifruit over the range 0 to 2000 Hz and compared them with Magness-Taylor (MT) penetrometer values. Sonic resonant frequencies and mass were combined to calculate a sonic stiffness coefficient. Coefficients of determination (r2 ) for sonic stiffness coefficients versus MT slope and log of MT maximum force were 0.88 and 0.86, respectively. Sonic stiffness coefficients provided good to excellent classification of kiwifruit into two or three firmness categories based on MT maximum force values. A combination of amplitudes at several specific sonic frequencies selected by stepwise discriminant analysis or regression tree analysis also provided successful sorting algorithms. Identification of soft kiwifruit was 89% to 96% accurate and of firm kiwifruit 83% to 91%. These conclusions are based on a rather small sampling of kiwifruit of a single source and size, but the results clearly indicate the potential of a nondestructive firmness measurement based on sonic frequency vibrations.