Celery (Apium graveolens L.) is a vegetable belonging to the Apiaceae family that is widely used for its distinct flavor and contains a variety of bioactive metabolites with healthy properties. Some celery ecotypes cultivated in specific territories of Italy have recently attracted the attention of consumers and scientists because of their peculiar sensorial and nutritional properties. In this work, the volatile profiles of white celery “Sedano Bianco di Sperlonga” Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) ecotype, black celery “Sedano Nero di Torricella Peligna” and wild-type celery were investigated using head-space solid-phase microextraction combined with gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC-MS) and compared to that of the common ribbed celery. Exploratory multivariate statistical analyses were conducted using principal component analysis (PCA) on HS-SPME/GC-MS patterns, separately collected from celery leaves and petioles, to assess similarity/dissimilarity in the flavor composition of the investigated varieties. PCA revealed a clear differentiation of wild-type celery from the cultivated varieties. Among the cultivated varieties, black celery “Sedano Nero di Torricella Peligna” exhibited a significantly different composition in volatile profile in both leaves and petioles compared to the white celery and the prevalent commercial variety. The chemical components of aroma, potentially useful for the classification of celery according to the variety/origin, were identified.

Dried and ground red pepper is a spice used as seasoning in various traditional dishes all over the world; nevertheless, the pedoclimatic conditions of the diverse cultivation areas provide different chemical characteristics, and, consequently, diverse organoleptic properties to this product. In the present study, the volatile profiles of 96 samples of two different ground bell peppers harvested in diverse Italian geographical areas, Altino (Abruzzo) and Senise (Lucania), and a commercial sweet paprika, have been studied by means of headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The investigation of their volatile profile has led to the identification of 59 analytes. Eventually, a discriminant classifier, Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), was exploited to discriminate samples according to their geographical origin. The model provided very accurate results in external validation; in fact, it correctly classified all the 30 test samples, achieving 100% correct classification (on the validation set). Furthermore, in order to understand which volatiles contribute the most at differentiating the bell peppers from the different origins, a variable selection approach, Variable Importance in Projection (VIP), was used. This strategy led to the selection of sixteen diverse compounds which characterize the different bell pepper spices.

Development of local plant genetic resources grown in specific territories requires approaches that are able to discriminate between local and alien germplasm. In this work, three potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) local accessions grown in the area of Majella National Park (Abruzzo, Italy) and five commercial varieties cultivated in the same area were characterized using 22 morphological descriptors and microsatellite (SSR) DNA markers. Analysis of the DNA and of the plant, leaf, flower, and tuber morpho-agronomic traits allowed for a reliable discrimination of the local potato accessions, and provided a clear picture of their genetic relationships with the commercial varieties. Moreover, infrared spectroscopy was used to acquire a fingerprint of the tuber flesh composition. A total of 279 spectra, 70% of which were used in calibration and the remaining 30% for prediction, were processed using partial least squares discriminant analysis. About 97% of the calibration samples and 80% of the prediction samples were correctly classified according to the potato origin. In summary, the combination of the three approaches were useful in the characterization and valorization of local germplasm. In particular, the molecular markers suggest that the potato accession named Montenerodomo, cultivated in Majella National Park, can be considered a local variety and can be registered into the Regional Voluntary GR Register and entered into the foreseen protection scheme, as reported by the Italian regional laws.

Celery (Apium graveolens L., var. Dulce), is a biennial herbaceous plant belonging to the Apiaceae family, cultivated in humid soils in the Mediterranean basin, in Central-Southern Europe, and in Asia. Despite its wide diffusion and although it is well-known that cultivar/origin strongly influences plant composition, only a few studies have been carried out on the different types of celery. The present work aims to investigate four different Italian types of celery (two common, Elne and Magnum celery, and two black, Torricella Peligna Black and Trevi Black celery), and to test, whether the combination of FT-IR spectroscopy and chemometrics allows their ecotype discrimination. The peculiarity of this study lies in the fact that all the analyzed celeries were grown in the same experimental field under the same soil and climate conditions. Consequently, the differences captured by the FT-IR-based tool are mainly imputable to the different ecotypes. In order to achieve this goal, FT-IR profiles were handled by two diverse classifiers: sequential preprocessing through ORThogonalization (SPORT) and soft independent modeling by class analogy (SIMCA). Eventually, the highest classification rate (90%, on an external set of 100 samples) has been achieved by SPORT.

In recent years, Brassicaceae have piqued the interest of researchers due to their extremely rich chemical composition, particularly the abundance of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds, as well as because of their antimutagenic and potential anticarcinogenic activity. Vegetables in this family can be found practically everywhere on the planet. In Italy, numerous varieties of Brassicaceae, as well as a diverse pool of local variants, are regularly cultivated. These landraces, which have a variety of peculiar features, have recently sparked increased interest, and the need to safeguard them to preserve genetic biodiversity has become a relevant topic. In the present study, eight distinct Brassicaceae folk varieties were studied using non-destructive tools (Multivariate Image analysis and agro-morphological descriptors). Eventually, the data were handled using explorative analysis (EA) and Soft Independent Modeling by Class Analogy (SIMCA). EA pointed out similarities/dissimilarities among the diverse investigated populations. SIMCA led to high sensitivity (>70%) in prediction (on the external test set) for seven (over eight) investigated classes. Although the investigated plants belong to different landraces, they bear strong similarities. This is mainly linked to the ability of Brassicaceae to hybridize. Despite this, the combination of colorgrams and SIMCA allowed for classifying samples with excellent accuracy.

Despite its global importance for the maintenance of healthy ecosystems and its contribution in providing economic benefits to human society, the clade Anthophila is in severe decline worldwide. In this context, counteracting the decline in Apoidea is of fundamental importance. Honey bee density and beekeeping are believed to negatively impact wild bee populations, mostly through competition for food sources. In this study, interspecific trophic competition was investigated using the still seldom exploited approach of a palynological analysis combined with a metabarcoding analysis of the pollen gathered by both managed honey bees and wild bees in three Italian national parks. The entire trophic network was identified as highly specialized (H2′ = 0.933). The results obtained suggest that, overall, wild bee species are sustained by different pollen sources than honey bees. This low sharing of resources could be due to the natural trend occurring in natural populations, where species tend to minimize the competitive overlap through niche differentiation or niche complementarity as a result of coevolution. National parks play a fundamental role in animal and plant species protection and conservation. Therefore, plans should focus on evaluating honey bee densities in the interests of achieving less intensive, more traditional, and sustainable beekeeping, as well as habitat restoration, to promote the survival and reproduction of wild bee populations.