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Is competition between mesocarp cells of peach fruits affected by the percentage of wild species genome?

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Abstract

The number of cells and the mean cell volume in the mesocarps of fruits from peach genotypes with different percentages of the genome of Prunus davidiana, a wild, related, species, were evaluated. The mesocarp mass varied greatly between the four groups of genotypes. The mean cell volume and the number of cells were negatively correlated within each group. This correlation can be interpreted as a relationship of competition between cells. In order to describe the type of competition in the different groups, we tried to adjust a model of competition for resources proposed by Lescourret and Génard (Ecoscience 10:334–341, 2003). To estimate the values of the three parameters of the model for the different groups, we applied model selection. Within nested models, we identified a single best model with six parameter values. This model was roughly accurate, but it allowed us to describe the general relationship for each group. The parameter values revealed a strong and under-compensating density-dependence effect for all groups. The percentage of P. davidiana genome appeared to influence the maximal number of cells and the strength of the competition, but no effect was found on the maximal mean volume of cells.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Hostalery for her assistance in fruit observations and measurements and N. Bertin for her advice on cell-count protocol. This research was funded, in part, by grants from Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (projects DEB 02–252 and DEB 03–543) and from the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France (A.I.P. PFI P00232 and A.I.P. REA P00251).

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Correspondence to Bénédicte Quilot.

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Quilot, B., Génard, M. Is competition between mesocarp cells of peach fruits affected by the percentage of wild species genome?. J Plant Res 121, 55–63 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-007-0125-9

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