RESUMEN
Native to South America, the tomato is now grown almost worldwide. During its domestication and improvement, important selection signatures were fixed in certain agronomic and adaption traits. Such traits include fruit morphology, which became a major target for selection over the centuries. However, little is known about precisely when some mutations arose and how they spread through the germplasm. For instance, elongated fruit variants, originating both via mutations in SUN and OVATE genes, may have arisen prior to domestication or during tomato cultivation in Europe. To gain insights into the tomato admixture and selection pattern, the genome of two tomato herbarium specimens conserved in the Herbarium Porticense (PORUN) was sequenced. Comparison of the DNA of herbarium samples collected in Italy between 1750 and 1890 with that of living tomato accessions yielded insights into the history of tomato loci selection. Interestingly, the genotype of the more recent sample (LEO90), classified in 1890 as the oblungum variety, shows several private variants in loci implicated in fruit shape determination, also present also in wild tomato samples. In addition, LEO90, sampled in the nineteenth century, is genetically more distant from cultivated varieties than the SET17 genotype, collected in the eighteenth century, suggesting that elongated tomato varieties may originate from a cross between a landrace and a wild ancestor. Findings from our study have major implications for the understanding of tomato migration patterns and for the conservation of allelic diversity and loci recovery.
RESUMEN
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ruta is a genus of Rutaceae family. It features mainly shrubby plants, native to the Mediterranean region and present in traditional medicine of this region since Antiquity. The three most diffused species Ruta chalepensis L., Ruta graveolens L., and Ruta montana (L.) L., are morphologically poorly differentiated and were probably interchangeably used during Antiquity. AIM OF THE STUDY: Hippocratic and contemporary medical applications of the Ruta genus in the Mediterranean were compared to check if they result from a continuity of use from the ancient times to nowadays. RESULTS: Ruta spp. was mainly employed in medical preparations by Hippocratic physicians as an abortifacient and emmenagogue. In addition to gynaecological conditions, in several treatises of the Corpus HippocraticumRuta spp. were also recommended as a specific remedy against pulmonary diseases. Ruta spp. leaves and also roots and seeds, were administered for internal use by Hippocratic physicians after having been soaked in wine or mixed with honey or its derivatives. Contemporary traditional uses of Ruta spp. have been assessed in detail in the whole Mediterranean area. CONCLUSION: Nowadays, Ruta spp. is used to treat different conditions but, as a general rule, the external uses are preferred as the toxicity of the plant is widely acknowledged.
