Vegetables represent pillars of good nutrition since they provide important phytochemicals such as fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, as well as minerals. Biofortification proposes a promising strategy to increase the content of specific compounds. As minerals have important functionalities in the human metabolism, the possibility of enriching fresh consumed products, such as many vegetables, adopting specific agronomic approaches, has been considered. This review discusses the most recent findings on agronomic biofortification of vegetables, aimed at increasing in the edible portions the content of important minerals, such as calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iodine (I), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), and silicon (Si). The focus was on selenium and iodine biofortification thus far, while for the other mineral elements, aspects related to vegetable typology, genotypes, chemical form, and application protocols are far from being well defined. Even if agronomic fortification is considered an easy to apply technique, the approach is complex considering several interactions occurring at crop level, as well as the bioavailability of different minerals for the consumer. Considering the latter, only few studies examined in a broad approach both the definition of biofortification protocols and the quantification of bioavailable fraction of the element.

The seed industry and farmers have challenges, which include the production of poor quality and non-certified tomato seed, which ultimately results in decreased crop production. The issue carefully demands pre-sowing treatments using exogenous chemical plant growth-promoting substances. Therefore, to mitigate the above-stated problem, a series of experiments were conducted to improve the quality of tomato seeds (two cultivars, i.e., “Sundar” and “Ahmar”) and to enhance the stand establishment, vigor, physiological, and biochemical attributes under growth chamber and greenhouse conditions by using potassium nitrate (KNO₃) as a seed priming agent. Seeds were imbibed in 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0, and 1.25 KNO₃ (weight/volume) for 24 h and then dried before experiments. The results of growth chamber and greenhouse screening show that experimental units receiving tomato seeds primed with 0.75% KNO₃ in both cultivars performed better as compared to other concentrations and nonprimed control. Significant increase in final emergence (%), mean emergence time, and physiological attributes were observed with 0.75% KNO₃. Collectively, the improved performance of tomato due to seed priming with 0.75% KNO₃ was linked with higher activities of total soluble sugars and phenolics under growth chamber and greenhouse screening.

Over the last few decades, the improvement of tomato aroma and flavour has gained growing attention among breeders, agronomists and food technologists, as it is reputed as a key tool to further consolidate tomato consumption in the global market. However, this represents a difficult task, since more than 400 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) differently contribute to tomato aroma and its flavour perception. The recent development of molecular tools has allowed us to identify some of the major alleles influencing the volatile composition of tomatoes. Nonetheless, such composition involves an intricate weave of polygenic systems, highly influenced by external, pre and postharvest factors. With few exceptions, our knowledge about the effects of these determinants is still scarce, making it difficult to draw sound conclusions to best manage the future genetic potential. The present review examines the existing knowledge on major VOCs influencing tomato organoleptic quality, including their classification, metabolic pathways, genetics, and technical features that affect their concentrations in fruits. Particular emphasis is placed on preharvest and postharvest factors influencing their quantitative and qualitative expression, whose integrated study with omic tools will be increasingly necessary for the perspective of disseminating reliable operational indications throughout the production/distribution chain.

Background: The Asteraceae speciesCynara cardunculus(2n = 2x = 34) includes the two fully cross-compatible domesticatedtaxaglobe artichoke (var.scolymusL.) and cultivated cardoon (var.altilisDC). As both are out-pollinators and suffer from marked inbreeding depression, linkage analysis has focussed on the use of a two way pseudo-test cross approach.Results: A set of 172 microsatellite (SSR) loci derived from expressed sequence tag DNA sequence were integrated into the referenceC. cardunculusgenetic maps,based on segregation among the F₁progeny of a cross between a globe artichoke and a cultivated cardoon. The resulting maps each detected 17 major linkage groups, corresponding to the species’ haploid chromosome number. A consensus map based on 66 co-dominant shared loci (64 SSRs and two SNPs) assembled 694 loci, with a mean inter-marker spacing of 2.5 cM. When the maps were used to elucidate the pattern of inheritance of head production earliness, a key commercial trait, seven regions were shown to harbour relevant quantitative trait loci (QTL). Together, these QTL accounted for up to 74% of the overall phenotypic variance.Conclusion: The newly developed consensus as well as the parental genetic maps can accelerate the process of tagging and eventually isolating the genes underlying earliness in both the domesticatedC. cardunculusforms. The largest single effect mapped to the same linkage group in each parental maps, and explained about one half of the phenotypic variance, thus representing a good candidate for marker assisted selection.

Copper (Cu) is an essential metal for plants. However, its excess in soil can adversely affect plant metabolism. The current study evaluated the effects of gibberellic acid (GA₃) foliar applications on the performance of pea plants grown either in Cu-contaminated (Cu+) and non-contaminated (Cu−) soil. GA₃ was sprayed (0, 10, 50, and 100 mg·L⁻¹) on 15-days-old plants. The results showed that the increasing concentration of GA₃ buffered the phytotoxic effects of Cu and enhanced plant growth, photosynthesis, and leaf chlorophyll content. Foliar-sprayed GA₃ up to 100 mg·L⁻¹ alleviated the oxidative stress, as inferred from the lower concentrations of MDA and H₂O₂ (33.3 µmol·g⁻¹ and 182 µmol·g⁻¹, respectively), and boosted the activity of superoxide dismutase (64.4 U·g⁻¹·FW), peroxidase (122.7 U·g⁻¹·FW), and catalase (226.3 U·g⁻¹·FW). Interestingly, GA₃ promoted Cu accumulation in different plant parts when compared to untreated plants, likely due to increased photosynthetic and transpiration rates. Overall, foliar application of GA₃ promoted phytoextraction of Cu and alleviated the oxidative stress in pea plants grown in Cu+ soil.

The vegetable production sector is currently fronting several issues mainly connected to the increasing demand of high quality food produced in accordance with sustainable horticultural technologies. The application of biostimulants, particularly protein hydrolysates (PHs), might be favorable to optimize water and mineral uptake and plant utilization and to increase both production performance and quality feature of vegetable crops. The present study was carried out on celery plants grown in a tunnel to appraise the influence of two PHs, a plant-derived PH (P-PH), obtained from soy extract and an animal PH (A-PH), derived from hydrolyzed animal epithelium (waste from bovine tanneries) on yield, yield components (head height, root collar diameter, and number of stalks), mineral composition, nutritional and functional features, as well as the economic profitability of PHs applications. Fresh weight in A-PH and P-PH treated plants was 8.3% and 38.2% higher, respectively than in untreated control plants. However, no significant difference was found between A-PH treated plants and control plants in terms of fresh weight. Head height significantly increased by 5.5% and 16.3% in A-PH and P-PH treated plants, respectively compared with untreated control (p ≤ 0.05). N content was inferior in PHs treated plants than in untreated control. Conversely, K and Mg content was higher in A-PH and P-PH treated plants as compared to the untreated ones. Furthermore, A-PH and P-PH improved ascorbic acid content by 8.2% and 8.7%, respectively compared with the non-treated control (p ≤ 0.001). Our results confirmed, also, that PHs application is an eco-friendly technique to improve total phenolic content in celery plants. In support of this, our findings revealed that animal or plants PH applications increased total phenolics by 36.9% and 20.8%, respectively compared with untreated plants (p ≤ 0.001).