hojjat hasheminasab

Gummosis (Phytophthora Crown and Root Rot) is one of the Most Important Diseases of Pistachio Trees. In Order to Evaluate the Relative Resistance of 29 Rootstocks of Pistacia to this Disease, a Factorial Experiment was Conducted with Two Factors Rootstocks Type and Disease Stress, Based on Completely Randomized Design with Three Replications. Two-Month-old Pistachio Seedlings were Artificially Inoculated with Phytophthora Drechsleri and After Six Months, Evaluation Was Done. The Resistance of Rootstocks was Evaluated by Determining the Percent of Crown Rot Girdling, Disease Severity and Mortality Indices and Measuring the Stem Length, Stem and Root Dry Weight Traits in Control and Stress levels. The Results Showed that There was a Significant Difference Between the Studied Rootstocks in Terms of Resistance to Disease. The Disease Stress Caused a Decrease in Stem Length, Stem and Root Dry Weight of Seedlings. The Atlantica Had the lowest Amount of Crown Girdling (20%) and Disease Severity (17%) and in Terms of Disease Severity, it Showed a Significant Difference with other Rootstocks. The Sarakhs Rootstock Had also the Highest Amount of Crown Girdling (95%), Disease Severity (90%) and Mortality (55.55%) and in Terms of These Indices, it was Significantly Different from other Rootstocks. Therefore, Atlantica was the most Resistant and Sarakhs the most Susceptible Pistacia Rootstocks Against Gummosis Disease. The Cluster Analysis Divided the Rootstocks into Four Groups: Resistant (Atlantica, Integerrima and UCB1), Moderately Resistant (Mutika, Benebaghi, Kalleghouchi, Ghazvini, Gholamrezaei, Italiaei, Ahmad Aghaei, M5 and BK1), and Moderately Susceptible and Susceptible .

Pistachio is one of the most important agricultural products and iran has the richest germplasm of pistachio in the world. The presence of this genetic resources will be an appropriate opportunity for use in breeding purposes. Knowledge of genetic relationships among pistachio genotypes has important role in it’s breeding programs. Molecular markers are one of the powerful tools for studying plant phylogenetic relationships. Start Codon Targeted (SCoT) technique is one of the molecular systems that used to assess the genetic relationship among different plant species and cultivars. This study was performed in order to evaluate the genetic relationships between a numbers of Pistacia species and cultivars using SCoT molecular markers and to assess the usefulness of this markers in differentiating this genus.

Plant materials of this study are included 29 genotypes of domestic and wild species of genus Pistacia. A total of 25 SCoT primers were used to evaluate the genetic relationships. Genomic DNA were extracted from leaf samples using CTAB method with minor modifications. The quantity and quality of the extracted DNA were measured by spectrophotometer and agarose gel electrophoresis. Cluster analysis based on Jaccard’s similarity matrix and complete linkage algorithm and Principal coordinate analysis were performed using NTSYSpc 2.02e software.

In total, 449 DNA fragments were amplified by primers out of which 433 bands (96/43%) were polymorphic. The average number of amplified fragments for each primer was 17.96 bands with a mean of 17.32 polymorphic bands per primer. A number of species-spicific marker were detected in some Genotypes. The average of polymorphism information content values varied from 0/18 to 0/38. Also, the values of marker indices ranged from 0/56 to 4/36. The range of similarity coefficients of genotypes varied between 25% to 68%. Cluster analysis divided Genotypes into two main cluster including vera (domestic) and wild species. Principal coordinate analysis separated vera cultivars and genotypes from wild species and confirmed the results of cluster analysis.

The results of this study demonstrated that SCoT molecular markers detected high polymorphism among pistachio species and cultivars and differentiated the studid genotypes. Therefore, SCoT Marker is a useful tool for studying phylogenetic relationships in genus Pistacia.

The high degree of heterozygosity has caused a great deal of genetic diversity in pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) This research was carried out on pistachio genotypes in the collection of pistachio cultivars of Khorasan Razavi province, (2016 and 2017). The most important traits evaluated were vegetative and reproductive growth in the terminal and lateral shoots, flowering date, fruit ripening time, yield (kg tree-1), percentage of blank fruit, and fresh and dry single fruit weight. The results showed that genotypes number 1 (B2-R35-T13) and 16 (B2-R46-T18) had the highest number of flower buds in the terminal shoots with an average of 4.4 and 4, respectively (p≤0.01). The highest yield of fresh pistachios with 14.7, 14 and 12 kg belonged to genotypes numbers 20 (B4-R10-T1), 16 and 2 (B2-R38-T2) respectively. Among these three genotypes with high yield, the least blank fruit (14.7%) belonged to genotype 2. Genotypes number 14 (P-R1-T2) and 9 (B1-R25-T20) with 1.22 and 0.6 g. had the highest and lowest dry fruit weight, respectively. A Positive correlation was also found between the length of the terminal shoots and the number of flower buds (r=0.63**). Genotypes were divided into three main groups by cluster analysis. According to the Mahalanobis distance, the shortest distance was observed between the second and third groups. In general, genotypes number 20, 16 and 2 were selected as promising genotypes according to yield traits, percentage of blank fruit, and dry weight of fruit, and will enter the next stages of breeding programs for new pistachio cultivars.

In this study, 10 selected pistachio genotypes were affected by irrigation treatments. Irrigation treatments included two levels of full irrigation and withholding of irrigation for two weeks, which were applied on three months seedlings. After the stress period, all plants (control and under stress) were irrigated again to the field capacity and their moisture was maintained at the field capacity for two weeks and different parameters were measured. Under water stress conditions, the highest relative water content of leaves (60.29%) belonged to P9 genotype. The P3 genotype also had the lowest ion leakage (41.8%), the lowest malondialdehyde concentration (18.73 μmol/g fresh weight), the highest proline concentration (0.8683 μmol/g fresh weight), and the highest concentration of soluble sugars (12.03 mg/g fresh weight). Under water stress conditions, the lowest relative water content of leaves (54.32%), the highest ion leakage (58.84%), the highest concentration of malondialdehyde (27.19 μmol/g fresh weight), the lowest amount of proline (0.53 μmol/g fresh weight) and the lowest amount of soluble sugars (6.697 mg/g fresh weight) also belonged to P8 genotype. In terms of growth parameters, the results showed that P1, P3 and P9 genotypes under water stress treatments showed less reduction than the control compared to other genotypes. In general, the results showed that P3, and P9 genotypes tolerated drought better than other genotypes and the P8 genotype showed more sensitivity to drought.

Pistachio is one of the most important and strategic crops in Iran which is typically cultivated under relatively saline soils and hot weather conditions. The present paper represents the results of an experiment which mainly focused on evaluating the tolerance of pistachio female and male genotypes to salinity stress. This experiment was carried out at the greenhouse of the Pistachio Research Center at Kerman, Iran, during 2016. The hybrids obtained from crosses between 17 male genotypes with a female genotype “Fandoghi” and also the combinations of 19 female genotypes after crossing with a male genotype “M15” were cultured in a completely randomized design with three replications under salt stress (4.2 dS m-1) without drainage in the greenhouse condition for a period of four months. The results show an increasing of the average soil salinity in pots to 32 dS m-1.The results also indicate that salinity might negatively affect growth parameters of pistachio. Therefore, selecting genotypes in this condition might lead to release tolerant genotypes. During the research, some yielded hybrids indicated the higher values for morphological parameters, the lower and higher concentration of Na+ and K+ under salinity stress, respectively. Meanwhile, it was found that, ‘Khanjari Damghan’ and ‘Mohseni’ among female parents, and M10, M15, and M25 among male parents are possible tolerant genotypes for further assessment in the area and also for releasing new rootstocks. The analysis of two clusters, i.e., cluster 1 (‘Khanjari Damghan’, ‘Mohseni’, ‘Lak Sirizi’, ‘Ebrahimi’, ‘Sifadini’, ‘Badami Zarand’, ‘Sephid Peste Nogh’, and ‘Post Kaghazi’) and cluster 2 (M10, M15, M24, M25, and M26) for female and male genotypes, respectively, exhibits that higher morphological parameters and also higher tolerance to salinity. More importantly, the analysis showed that these two categorized sets of genotypes can be proper choices for future breeding programs or to use directly in salinity conditions.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the morpho-biochemical reactions of pistachio rootstocks and their interspecific hybrids to frost and freezing temperature stress. The experiment was performed as a factorial in a completely randomized design with three replications. The first factor was temperature (4, 0 and -4 °C) and the second factor was rootstock ((pistachio domestic rootstocks (Badami Zarand, Sarakhs and Qazvini), hybrids (Qazvini×Khinjuk, Qazvini× Mutica, Qazvini × Baneh Baghi, Qazvini × Atlantica, Qazvini× Integerrima), non-domesticated species including Atlantica ((Pistacia atlantica, Integerrima, Khinjuk, Sarakhs, Mutica (P. atlantica sub. mutica) and Baneh Baghi (P. mutica × P. vera) and UCB1 hybrid. The results of this study showed that morphological and biochemical indices were statistically significant by the applied treatments. According to the results, with decreasing the temperature to -4 °C, the percentage and severity of damage significantly increased (p <0.01). The evaluation of the damage severity showed that the Mutica, hybrid Qazvini × Mutica, Sarakhs, Qazvini were tolerant to freezing temperature and the highest damage index was observed in UCB1, Integerrima and Khinjuk. Based on the results, the highest percentage of seedling drought damage was observed in UCB1 rootstock and the highest percentage of shoot tip drought was related to Integerrima and Khinjuk rootstock. The highest activity of Ascorbate peroxidase enzyme was in Sarakhs, Qazvini and Mutica rootstocks and the highest activity of Superoxide dismutase enzyme was related to Mutica rootstock and hybrid Qazvini× Mutica. The interaction effect showed that the activity of Catalase, Ascorbate peroxidase, Superoxide dismutase, and Guaiacol peroxidase enzymes in cold-tolerant rootstocks was significantly higher than cold-susceptible rootstocks. The results of cluster diagrams based on the evaluated indices showed that in cold temperature stresses, Mutica, Qazvini × Baneh, Sarakhs, Qazvini, and Qazvini ×Atlantica were in a subgroup which indicated the close proximity can be considered as the tolerant rootstocks to frost and freezing temperature stress in the breeding program.

Pistachio trees have different diseases. Some of these diseases are more common and some less well known. In the current study, the successful application of knowledge and experience of farmers for control of pistachio die-back disorder was investigated. The data used is related to 286 pistachio orchards in Anar and Rafsanjan districts that were collected over a 9 year period (2010 to 2018) and in three cross times, years of 2012, 2015 and 2018. To evaluate the effect of different management factors on reducing or increasing the severity of orchard disorder and its effects on the quantity and quality of pistachio crop yield and profit, the methods of correlation coefficient, mean comparison and regression was used. Results showed that the total damage caused by this disorder is 237 million Rials per hectare per year and a 5% increase in closed shell pistachio. Also, 97% of the studied farmers knew pistachio die-back disorder but did not identify the causes. Factors such as high plant density, severe deficit irrigation, deficiency of potassium and manganese nutrients, severe alternate bearing and repeated application of volck oil to meet cold requirements exacerbate the die-back disorder. In contrast, the application of poultry, the use of phosphate and sulopotas fertilizers, and micro nutrients reduce the risk of die-back disorder. Investigating the role of farmers' abilities in controlling pistachio die-back disorder showed that knowledge and understanding of this disorder is not enough. Rather, the other three tools required are good soil and water conditions, knowledge, desire and ability to feed the pistachio orchards and the belief in sustainable orchard management and the long-term goal of maintaining the trees and crop production.

Insufficient pollination is one of the main reasons for the low pistachio yield in the country. Differences in the flowering time of male and female pistachio trees, the inadequate ratio of male to female trees in the orchard and lack of proper orientation can significantly reduce the efficiency of pollination and consequently the yield of pistachio trees. The simultaneous flowering of male and female trees is essential for successful pollination and fertilization. In this study, 56 male pistachio genotypes in Yezbar pistachio station, Qazvin Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Qazvin province during 2020 were examined and their flowering characteristics evaluated. For this purpose, three branches of each genotype labeled in the spring and phenological stages such as flowering beginning, full bloom and end of flowering were examined. Also, male catkins were collected during the flowering period and indicators such as wet and dry weight of the inflorescence, the weight of pollen grains per inflorescence and the number of inflorescences on the branch measured. The results showed that the flowering period of the female Kalebozi cultivar in the orchard was 11 days. Flowering began on April 21, the full bloom stage on April 26, and the end of flowering on May 1. The male genotypes also had a significant difference in all traits except the fresh weight of the inflorescence at the level of 1%. Evaluations showed that among the 56 male genotypes, 530-2 and 522-2 were the earliest and the latest flowering genotypes, respectively. The longest flowering period with 13.3, 12.6 and 12.3 days were related to genotypes 526-4, 516-1 and 522-3, respectively, followed by the genotypes 502-5, 529-5 and 529-1. The shortest flowering period belonged to 521-3 with 5 days. The flowering period of genotypes 502-5, 526-4, 516-1 and 522-3 was completely consistent with the flowering of Kalebozi cultivar and covered 100% of the flowering of this female cultivar. In addition, genotypes 526-4, 526-6, 522-3, 508-3, 518-6, 525-6 and 508-4 had higher dry weight of inflorescence and production of pollen grains. In terms of the number of catkins, the genotypes 529-5, 528-4, 508-4, 526-4, 518-6, and 509-4 had more than three catkins. Genotype 526-4 can be introduced as the superior genotype for pollination of Kolebozi cultivar due to its long flowering period and being synchronous with Kolebezi cultivar and also having more pollens and catkins.

Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) is one of the most important agricultural products and export ‎items in Iran, which alone accounts for about one third of non-oil revenues in the agricultural ‎sector. Although pistachio is known as a plant adapted to environmental stresses, drought and ‎salinity are the most important factors in reducing production and one of the main problems ‎to achieve the real potential of this crop in Iran. The subject of the present project was to ‎evaluate the drought tolerance of two new genotypes ‎‎"Jookar1" and "Jookar2" as compared to two common native rootstocks "Badami Zarand" and ‎‎"Qazvini", which have tolerance to drought stress. In this regard, genotypes Jookar1 and ‎Jookar2 along with Badami Zarand and Qazvini were conducted in a factorial completely ‎randomized design (CRD) with five replications and five observations in each replication ‎in two ‎consecutive years (2018 and 2019). Evaluation of drought tolerance of rootstocks was done ‎at ‎three levels of normal (5-day irrigation cycle), mild stress (10-day irrigation cycle) and ‎severe stress (15-day irrigation cycle) using by morpho-physiological traits ‎related to water ‎stress. The results of irrigation treatments in the first and second year of the experiment ‎showed that there were significant differences between different levels of drought in all ‎morpho-physiological traits with the exception of stem water percentage and the number of ‎main root branches. Analysis of traits related to vegetative growth and physiological traits ‎related to plant water status showed that Jookar2 in mild stress and Badami Zarand and ‎Jookar1 in optimal and severe stress were selected as superior rootstocks. Although Jookar2 ‎showed significant sensitivity to drought in the early stages of growth in the first year of the ‎experiment and both vegetative growth and leaf area decreased significantly, this sensitivity ‎decreased in the second year of the experiment. Evaluation of morphological characteristics ‎of roots, crown and stem also confirmed the superiority of Jookar2 in mild drought stress ‎condition. However, no significant differences were observed between the four rootstocks ‎under normal and severe stress conditions. The clustering of the rootstocks based on all the ‎evaluated traits showed that in all three irrigation conditions, Badami Zarand and Jookar1 ‎were located in the same subgroup, which indicated the close genetic proximity of these two ‎rootstocks. Evaluation of three indices of uniformity, stability and viability in ‎greenhouse and orchard conditions screened Badami Zarand, Jookar1 and Qazvini as suitable ‎rootstocks. There was no damaged seedling in the orchard condition. The ‎findings showed that Jookar1 can be identified as a tolerant rootstock compared to Badami ‎Zarand and Qazvini which are considered as the best rootstocks in Iran and drought tolerance ‎of them has been confirmed in several researches. Jookar1 showed acceptable drought ‎tolerance and higher vegetative growth. Jookar2 was also significantly superior to the other ‎rootstocks in the mild drought stress, but its uniformity and viability were lower than the ‎other rootstocks after germination. In this study, Badami Zarand and Jookar1 were selected as ‎the best rootstocks that had desirable vegetative growth, drought tolerance, uniformity, ‎stability and viability.

Cold is an environmental factor limiting the growth and yield of agricultural crops. To find cold-tolerant pistachio rootstocks, a factorial experiment was conducted at Pistachio Research Center (PRC), Rafsanjan, Iran during 2017-2018. The factors included six rootstocks (Badami Zarand, Ghazvini, Sarakhs, Integerrima × Badami Zarand, Integerrima × Ghazvini and Integerrima × Sarakhs) and four thermal treatments (4, 0, -2, and -4°C) with three iterations. Seedlings in 6-8 leaf stage were placed in thermal treatments for two hours. Ionic leakage, pH of leaked solution, chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthesis efficiency index, chlorophyll (a, b, total) and carotenoid contents were the traits assessed in this study. Based on the results, a decrease in temperature made an increase in ionic leakage rate, conversely making decreases in pH of the leaked solution, photosynthetic pigments contents, Fv/Fm and PI index. In addition, the highest photosynthetic pigments, pH of leaked solution, Fv/Fm and PI index were observed in Ghazvini and Integerrima × Ghazvini rootstocks. Meanwhile, the highest ionic leakage was observed in Integerrima × Badami Zarand. In aggregate, Ghazvini and Integerrima × Ghazvini were identified as the most cold-tolerant rootstocks, while Integerrima × Badami Zarand was the most cold-sensitive rootstock.

Plant Germplasm is the main source used by the plant breeders and the most important national treasures of any country. Iran has one of the largest and most unique wild species of pistachio (Pistacia vera L., var. Sarakhs) forests in the world, which is a valuable genetic resource. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the genetic diversity of male genotypes in this collection and determine the genetic distance and their grouping. Detecting characteristics of each group of these genotypes, which can be indicated the genetic value for productivity in breeding programs was another perspective of the project. The present study was carried out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 5 replications for 3 years (2017-2019) at Station 2 of Pistachio Research Center. The results of evaluation genetic variation with morpho-physiological indices and phonological stages of flowering showed that 188 males of these populations are classified in 33 different genotypic groups. The results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was a significant difference between selected genotypes in all measured traits. Flowering period of male genotypes in this population was 35.2 days, indicating significant variation at flowering time among male genotypes. Compatibility assessments showed that among 33 male genotypes, M5 in addition to its ability to produce suitable pollen grains had a good overlap with flowering time of commercial cultivars including Ahmad Aghaei, Kaleh-Ghoochi and Owhadi. Genotypes M12, M13, M14, F4M and M106 were selected as the ideal pollinizers for Akbari cultivar among the genotypes overlapping with this commercial cultivar. Grouping genotypes based on square Euclidean distance showed that male populations were classified into 2 main and 5 subgroups, confirming the existence of widespread genetic diversity in wild "Sarakhs" pistachio. The finding demonstrated that this collection, as a valuable germplasm, has a high diversity and breeding potential that can be used in pistachio breeding programs.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between ounce and kernel% (kernel to shell) with each other and other quantitative and qualitative indices of the kernel and nut in Iranian commercial pistachio cultivars. Four pistachio cultivars including Kaleh-Ghoochi, Ahmad-Aghaei, Owhadi and Akbari, which constitute the main pistachio cultivar, are selected in five ounces and then the relationship among the commercial indices of the kernel and nut was determined by different statistical methods. The results of this study showed that the quantitative and qualitative indices related to kernel and nut morphology reviled a significant decrease with increasing number of nut per ounce. The nut and kernel length (r= .0.433) showed a higher relationship with ounce as compared to the other traits. The suture opening and shell thickness had the highest coefficient of variation (C.V.), indicating a high range of variations between different nuts in one ounce. In this study, the indices related to the kernel were less effective than the nut on ounce index. The kernel hectoliters, which is a valuable commercial index for determining the quality and health of the kernel, is not significantly different in ounces, indicating no significant difference in the kernel quality of Iranian commercial cultivars with an increase in ounces. The kernel% was significantly affected (P<0.01) by ounce in all four cultivars. In this study, the highest kernel% was observed in Owhadi (57.39), Ahmad-Aghaei (56.35), Kaleh-Ghoochi (53.92) and Akbari (53.30) cultivars, respectively. Therefore, Owhadi had the highest and Akbari had the lowest kernel%. The findings indicated that kernel% in the round cultivars was more affected by the shell thickness and the stretched cultivars by the kernel. The results showed that there was a negative correlation (r= 0.439) between ounces and kernel% in evaluated cultivars.

The common pistachio psylla, Agonoscena pistaciae (Hemiptera: Psylloidea), is one of the most important pests found in pistachio orchards in Iran, that annually causes great economic damages on pistachio yield. The application of sulfur as a pesticide was one of the strategies used in orchards in the recent years but with negative and positive effects as have been reported. The purpose of this review is to investigate sulfur as a pesticide.

All pesticides used in the United States must be registered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), based on scientific studies demonstrating their applications without posing risks on people or the environment. Elemental sulfur as a natural component was registered by EPA for application as the insecticide, fungicide, and rodenticide on several hundred of feed crops, ornamental plants, turfs, and residential sites.

The available studies indicate that the application of sulfur within the authorized limits has low toxicity in people and non-target species.

All pesticides containing sulfur as individual active ingredient are acceptable for application in an organically managed orchard. Pesticides containing sulfur can be applied using acceptable techniques without causing unreasonable adverse effects on people or the environment.