B P International

To study Moroccan saffron germplasm variability relating to different agro-morphological and phenological traits, 969 saffron corms (accessions) were collected from thirteen different sites located in traditional saffron area of Taliouine-Taznakht. The study confirmed a wide range of phenotypic variability within and between populations. The variance analysis revealed that the mother corm weight (MCW), taken as covariant, has significant effect on all studied traits. The difference within and between origins (Provenances) was highly significant for all traits, which showed highly significant correlation. The flowers number (NF) as well as the number of daughter corms weighing above 7 g per plant (NDC≥7) turned out to be the most determinant parameters of saffron yield. The produced FN per corm varied from 1 to 9 with an average of 2.2 flowers. P1 population recorded a flowering rate of 65.5% with a maximum average of NF (2). Stigmat length (SL), which is an important yield trait, sh...

Seedlessness is a major objective in Morocco Citrus improvement programme. Triploidy has played an important role in the development of new seedless mandarin cultivars for fresh fruit market and has received increasing attention for the consumers. Citrus triploid hybrids can be recovered through 2x x 2x taking advantage of the unreduced (2n) gametes formation. 2x x 4x and 4x x 2x sexual hybridizations are also widely exploited. In that case, many series of diploid crosses were assessed. At maturity, the fruits have been harvested, and small embryos were extracted from undeveloped seed and cultured on the medium of Murashig and Skoog supplemented with 1mg/l gibberellic acid according. Triploids seedling selected by flow cytometry analysis were budded on Troyer citrange and planted in INRA domain with spacing 6 m X 3 m. Two new seedless selections of mandarins have been evaluated in a citrus breeding program at Morocco INRA: Hana and Aya that were compared with their female parent cle...