Iris pallida Lam. is traditionally cultivated in Italy to sell its rhizomes to perfume-producing industries and is particularly sought-after because of its high content of irones, ketone compounds responsible for the violet smell of the orris essence. One of the critical aspects of its cultivation is the propagation method, performed by subdividing and replanting sections of the rhizome, which leads to the sacrifice of salable material. A solution is provided via in vitro propagation using the somatic embryogenesis technique, an effective method that allows the production of plants without the use of the rhizome. To facilitate the scale up of the activities of micropropagation companies, the method of slow growth storage (SGS) for orris plantlets and a somatic embryo encapsulation technique were developed for the first time. Orris plantlets were placed at 4 °C in the dark for 30, 60, 90 and 120 days and monitored 7 and 30 days after treatment. Synthetic seeds were obtained by encapsulating somatic orris embryos in sodium alginate beads, which were stored for 14 and 28 days at 4 °C and 24 °C. The results showed that it is possible to cold-preserve orris plantlets for up to 90 days without significant damages and that orris synthetic seeds can be produced and stored for a short-to-mid-term period. These conservation techniques can be useful for germplasm conservation and can also be integrated in the micropropagation cycle of orris, helping to solve issues related to the traditional propagation method.

Laccase-based biocatalytic reactions have been tested with and without mediators and optimized in the oxidation of allylbenzene derivatives, such as methyl eugenol taken as a model substrate. The reaction primarily consisted in the hydroxylation of the propenyl side chain, either upon isomerization of the double bond or not. Two pathways were then observed; oxidation of both allylic alcohol intermediates could either lead to the corresponding α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compound, or the corresponding benzaldehyde derivative by oxidative cleavage. Such a process constitutes a green equivalent of ozonolysis or other dangerous or waste-generating oxidation reactions. The conversion rate was sensitive to the substitution patterns of the benzenic ring and subsequent electronic effects.

Two germplasm collections, comprising 1026 peach accessions located in Italy, were analyzed with 12 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. SSR reactions were performed using the multiplex-ready PCR protocol, and 147 alleles were amplified with an average of 12 alleles per locus. BPPCT001 was the most informative marker displaying the highest discrimination power (0.734). The observed heterozygosity showed an average of 0.45 alleles per locus, lower than expected (0.61). The fixation index (F) values were positive in all loci, with an average of 0.27 alleles per locus, suggesting the presence of endogamy. The DNA fingerprinting data allowed the discrimination of 80.95% of the analyzed accessions. If we exclude known sport mutations, known synonymies, and cultivars with the same pedigree, 161 accessions are mislabeled, with an error rate of 16.56% within or between collections. Population structure analysis revealed three subpopulations: modern peach cultivars, modern nectarine cultivars, and a third group mainly comprising traditional peach cultivars. The results obtained in this work will be useful to efficiently manage Genebank, reducing unwanted redundancy, synonyms and homonyms, mislabeling, and spelling errors, as well as identifying parents in controlled crosses.

Two germplasm collections, comprising 1026 peach accessions located in Italy, were analyzed with 12 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. SSR reactions were performed using the multiplex-ready PCR protocol and 147 alleles were amplified with an average of 12 alleles per locus. BPPCT001 was the most informative marker displaying the highest discrimination power (0.734). The observed heterozygosity showed an average of 0.45 alleles per locus, lower than expected (0.61). The fixation index (F) values were positive in all loci, with an average of 0.27 alleles per locus, suggesting the presence of endogamy. The DNA fingerprinting data allowed the discrimination of 80.95% of the analyzed accessions. If we exclude known sport mutations, known synonymies and cultivars with the same pedigree, 161 accessions are mislabeled , with an error rate of 16.56% within or between collections. Population structure analysis showed three sub-populations: modern peach cultivars, modern nectarine cultivars and a third group mainly composed of traditional peach cultivars. The results obtained in this work will be useful to efficiently manage GenBanks, reducing unwanted redundancy, synonyms and homonyms, mislabeling and spelling errors as well as identifying parents in controlled crosses.

Sesquiterpenes are key molecules nurturing the complex and subtle base notes of pelargonium fragrances. Yet, their contribution to the essential oil olfactory profile and their biosynthesis are far from being well understood. We therefore explored sesquiterpene composition in 10 pelargonium accessions and revealed that, although lowly accumulated, their wide diversity participates to the biochemical uniqueness of each fragrance. We further investigated sesquiterpene biosynthesis thanks to a multiomic approach, integrating transcriptomic together with metabolomic data. A phylogenetic analysis of pelargonium TPS-a subfamily first revealed a total of 21 groups of orthology and denoted a strong transcriptional regulation of related enzymes. Seven sesquiterpene synthases were then wisely selected for functional characterization, both in vitro and in planta. Among them, two 6,9-guaidiene synthases were characterized for the first time in plants. Finally, we explored the role of amino acids located in the active site of sesquiterpene synthases in the enzymatic mechanism using site-directed mutagenesis. Altogether, this work highlights the great potential of the multiomic approach to predict TPS functions, but also exposes its limitations, inherent to terpene synthase's plasticity.