Jamal Charafi

National Institute for Agricultural Research "INRA" -Meknès, Morocco · Plant Breeding and Plant Genetic Resources Conservation

Like many bird species, climate change is negatively impacting Barbary partridge’s (Alectoris barbara) development and conservation in its natural environment. This study aims to analyse habitats and factors affecting presence of this species in different Moroccan regions. Data collected over four years (2021 to 2024) during hunting periods, supple...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nutritional value of eight varieties of Punica granatum seeds grown in Morocco (INRA station) as a source of vegetable oil. To this end we have investigated the impact of cultivars on lipophilic bioactive compounds, including Fatty acid (FA), phytosterol, and tocopherols, as well as the qualitative,...

Modeling the spatial distribution of species is an important step in biodiversity conservation. The models used can be helpful in predicting the impacts of climate change on the geographical distribution of species and in identifying areas where they are most likely to occur. The purpose of this work was to model the spatial distribution of the pom...

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) cultivation holds significant potential for enhancing agricultural sustainability, offering benefits such as increased grain yields, product diversification, and nutritional value. Despite facing abandonment by some farmers in Morocco, notably due to shifting agricultural practices, the cultivation of faba bean has maintai...

Several studies have consistently underscored the crucial role of environmental conditions and cultivar type as the foremost factors impacting pomegranate adaptation. In this research, the productive potential, fruit biochemical traits, vegetative growth and physiological characteristics of eleven pomegranate genotypes were evaluated under Moroccan...

The agro-morphological and vegetative traits of fruit trees such as plums vary according to the type of genotype and the sampling site. This work focuses on the characterization of four varieties planted in two contrasting experimental zones of the INRA of Meknes (Ain Taoujdate (T) in the Saïs plain and Annoceur (A) in the foothills of the Middle A...

This study is aimed at identifying the dates at which dormancy is released and flowering begins, and to measure the agroclimatic requirements (chill and heat) of four plum cultivars grown in two contrasting climatic zones, namely “Annoceur” (cold winter) and “Ain Taoujdate” (mild winter). These agroclimatic requirements were determined using three...

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effect of thermal conditions on pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) yield, and fruits’ physical and biochemical traits. The impact of thermal conditions was assessed by studying the variations in these properties across three different pomegranate genotypes grown under two contrasting climates. The firs...

The aim of this study was to investigate the adaptability of the Moroccan pomegranate cultivar ‘Sefri’ to varying environmental conditions across distinct regions in Morocco. Through a comprehensive analysis encompassing fruit production, fruit physical and biochemical quality, vegetative growth and photosynthetic activity, we elucidate the genotyp...

Several research studies have revealed the potential of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) as a viable alternative in addressing the impacts of climate change on the geographical distribution of fruit trees within semi-arid regions. Nevertheless, the pomegranate adaptation in these areas was influenced by many factors, such as the chilling requiremen...

We have characterized the 60 table grape accessions preserved at the living collection of the Domaine Expérimental de Ain Taoujdate (Morocco) through DNA analyses. Genetic profiling based on 13 SSRs and 240 SNP markers identified up to 40 different genotypes, denoting a certain level of redundancy. This information was useful to detect many cases o...

The date of endodormancy release and chill requirements of twenty-eight plum cultivars (Prunus domestica L. and Prunus salicina Lindl) growing in a collection at the experimental station of the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Meknes (Morocco) were determined according to three models namely the Chilling Hours model (in Chilling Hours...

This study examines the potential effects of climate change on the spatial distribution of ecological niches for pomegranate, a climate change-tolerant species, within the Fes-Meknes region of Morocco. We employ the principle of maximum entropy (MaxEnt) in conjunction with Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to simulate suitable habitats...

The date of endodormancy release and chill requirements of twenty-eight plum cultivars ( Prunus domestica L. and Prunus salicina Lindl) growing in a collection at the experimental station of the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Meknes (Morocco) were determined according to three models namely the Chilling Hours model (in Chilling Hour...

Several researches reported that pomegranate adaptation was influenced by many factors related to environmental conditions and genotype. In this study, the influence of two contrasting climate conditions on pomegranate development and productivity was evaluated over two consecutive years (2021/2022). Yield, physical quality of fruits, vegetative gr...

Several studies reported that apple adaptation was influenced by many factors related to environmental conditions and the genotype. In the present research, the impact of the cultivar factor was assessed within the specific context of Moroccan conditions. Therefore, we conducted tests on twenty-six different apple cultivars to evaluate their produc...

Assessment of genetic diversity of wild strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo l.) genotypes from Morocco using ISSR markers. Agriculture and Forestry, 69 (4): 135-155. SUMMARY The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity among 36 wild strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo L.) genotypes belonging to different altitude and geographical origins, usin...

Pomegranate fruit is generally consumed fresh or processed into food products, depending mainly on its composition, characteristics, and technological quality. This study aims to assess the variability in terms of physicochemical and biochemical properties of four foreign pomegranate cultivars, newly introduced in Béni Mellal region, to better know...

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) crop can be a lever for the development of oilseed sector in Morocco due to its adaptation to local conditions and its major economic and food importance. Genetic diversity and selection of valuable crossing parents are the key to successful breeding and improvement of this crop. In this regard, genetic variation within...

There are no established studies investigating the impact of drought stress tolerance on plum's performance (Prunus salicina L.) in Morocco. This study aimed to assess the effect of sustained deficit irrigation (SDI) on the yield and physiological traits of plums during the fruit development period in the Sais plain, northern Morocco. Eleven plum c...

Dried figs undergo undesirable changes during storage, particularly browning reactions. An approach to this issue is using, separately, antioxidants such as ascorbic acid and salicylic acid as anti-enzymatic browning agents. The aforementioned chemical agents were tested at the concentrations 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3% during 6 weeks-storage at 4 °C, for d...

BACKGROUND The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is an ancient perennial plant species of the Punicaceae family. Its seeds are consumed as food or as juice. Previous studies have noted that pomegranate juice encompasses many active compounds with beneficial effects. The main goals of this work were to study the phenolic components of freeze‐dried and r...

Rapeseed ( Brassica napus L.) crop can be a lever for the development of oilseed sector in Morocco due to its adaptation to local conditions and its major economic and food importance. Breeding is the key to the success of this crop and judicious choice of crossing parents is a prerequisite to the success of the selection program and the developmen...

There is a need for plum breeding in Morocco to release efficient and adapted varieties, which requires the existence of genetic variability in the studied material. Molecular characterization of 29 plum cultivars, from a Moroccan ex-situ collection, was carried out using 20 Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) primers. A high level of genetic vari...

Fig (Ficus carica L.) is one of the most emblematic trees in the Mediterranean region. Over time its propagation is carried out via stem cuttings, a procedure that favors the occurrence of varietal confusion among genotypes when it is not controlled. DNA fingerprinting using molecular primers such as simple sequence repeats (SSR) has become an impo...

The present experiment was conducted to assess the ability of the cutting of 18 pomegranate cultivars, 10 of which are local types and the other 8 are exotic varieties. The experiment was carried out in the controlled greenhouse, using two types of cuttings, semi-hardwood and hardwood and 4 IBA treatments (0, 1000, 2000 and 3000 mg L−1). The measur...

Pomegranate juice quality depends essentially on its chemical and nutritional components stability. The valuable nutritional components may be reduced during its processing or storage. This study examined the effect of pomegranate arils' frozen storage on juice quality, in terms of physicochemical properties and bioactive compounds stability. The p...

Combining phenotypic and genotypic germplasm characterization is a key to efficient and successful safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) breeding program by identifying valuable and confirmed parents. This study aimed to investigate and use appropriate statistical methods for such a characterization, and to identify potential genetic pools in safflow...

Vibrational spectroscopy analysis of full-ripened fig fruits (Ficus carica L.) was acquired using Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy by attenuated total reflectance (ATR). The objective of this study was to investigate accurate discrimination of 25 fig cultivars using chemometric analysis of both ATR–FTIR fingerprinting and in-vitro a...

Simple Summary: Primary and secondary metabolites are among the markers for addressing fig chemotypic variability. These compounds are mainly driven by the cultivar factor besides chromatic coordinates color as they are highly correlated to these biomarkers. Combined use of chemical analytical procedures and vibrational spectroscopy is of great imp...

Figs are a traditional pantry staple for healthy eating in Middle Eastern and North African countries as fig trees grow abundantly in such hot and dry climates. Despite the importance of this species, chemotypic diversity has gone unheeded and therefore its valorization pathways remain poorly documented. For this reason, high-pressure liquid chroma...

This work investigated the effects of sustained deficit irrigation (SDI) on yield components and fruit physico-biochemical proprieties of two pomegranate cultivars, ‘Sefri’ and ‘Wonderful’ 21 trees each, in Sais plain (northern Morocco) over two consecutive seasons (2018–2019). Irrigation treatments consisted of a control, irrigation applied to ful...

The effect of ascorbic acid (AA) and salicylic acid (SA) used separately at the following concentrations 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 %, on enzymatic browning and quality of “Nabout’’ dried fig during 6 weeks-storage at 4 °C within sealed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bags, was investigated. The results showed that AA and SA at higher concentrations, partic...

In the present study, chromatic coordinates, phenolic acids, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity assessed by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,20 -azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline6-sulfonate (ABTS) and lipid peroxidation inhibition capacity (LPIC) essays and their relative IC50 were investigated in 25 fig cultivars growing in Morocco. The ai...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate eleven plum cultivars (Prunus domestica L.) for drought tolerance based on agronomic performance and various physiological traits. The experiment was carried out under field conditions in Sais Plain (NW Morocco) on eight-year-old plum trees under drip irrigation. Two water treatments were applied during the...

Fig (Ficus carica L.) seeds are the less studied part of the species so far. They are usually discarded after their processing and scarcely studied for nutraceutical purposes. For this reason, the present work reports the lipochemical properties of fig seeds extracted from four fig cultivars conducted in an ex-situ collection. Oil was chemically ex...

The aim of this study was to assess eleven Mediterranean pomegranate cultivars for drought tolerance based on their responses to severe water stress. The experiment was performed under field conditions in Sais Plain (NW Morocco) on twelve-year-old pomegranate trees (Punica granatum L.), under drip irrigation. For each cultivar, two treatments were...

There is a need for sesame ( Sesamum indicum L.) breeding in Morocco to release performant and adapted varieties, which requires a large genetic variability in the germplasm to be used. In this context, genetic diversity of sesame populations from different locations in Tadla area was investigated using ISSR (Inter Sequence Simple Repeats) markers...

In Morocco, walnut tree (Juglans regia L.) cultivation is ancestral with complicated misidentification and unknown local genetic diversity. Atlas Mountains host a rich walnut tree germplasm, which has arisen from seedlings. The use of molecular markers makes it possible to overcomes confusion usually encountered in phenotypic characterization, ther...

The effects of regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) on the performance of almond cv. Tuono, peach cv. JH-Hall and plum cv. Stanley were assessed on the Saiss Plain (NW, Morocco) over three consecutive growing seasons (2011–2013). Irrigation treatments consisted of a control, irrigation applied to fully satisfy crop water requirements (100% ETC), and...

Moisture sorption isotherms of two fig varieties most grown in Moroccan orchards were assessed simulating the conditions of storage using the gravimetric static method at 30, 40, and 50°C. The equilibrium was reached within 8 to 10 days for desorption and adsorption, respectively over a stepwise increase of relative humidity ranging from 5% to 90%....

With the progresses of oilseed industry, an important interest is currently being focused on exploiting novel and underutilized sources for vegetable oils. Being so far the less studied part in fig fruits, seeds separated from four fig cultivars were assessed for their oil content, fatty acids identification, total phenolics and invitro antioxidant...

There are not many exhaustive works emphasizing the amount of genetic diversity based on multivariate analysis of a large sample of fig (Ficus carica L.) cultivars in Morocco. In this study, 96 local and 44 introduced fig cultivars were assessed using 41 descriptors. The studied genotypes exhibited a highly significant variability based on morpholo...

In the present study, morphological traits, organic acids, sugars, total phenols, total flavonoids, total anthocyanins, total anthocyanidins, antioxidant activity and color parameters such as lightness(L*), Chroma (c*) and hue angle (h°) were investigated in 11 local and introduced fig cultivars cultivated in Moroccan climate. Since only limited in...

This study aimed to screen 135 cultivars of fig (Ficus carica L.) to identify the most suitable cultivars in terms of morpho-agronomic and biochemical characters. The free radical scavenging activity was assessed through DPPH, ABTS and β-Carotene bleaching assays. The studied genotypes exhibited significant variability (p < .01) following all trait...

Fig (Ficus carica L.) is an important natural source of bioactive compounds in the health-promoting Mediterranean diet. However, there are no established studies investigating antioxidant compounds and their variability in figs grown in Moroccan orchards based on biochemical attributes. In this study, 135 local fig clones and foreign varieties were...

Introduction - A survey of family yards and traditional orchards was conducted to collect and evaluate phenotypic variation of fig (Ficus carica L.) accessions grown in Northern Morocco. Material and Methods - 20 local farmers were surveyed to identify different fig accessions grown in three northern regions of Morocco (Taounate, Ouazzane, and Mekn...

Abstract This work aims to assess pomological and biochemical characteristics of fig fruit of 140 known local and foreign genotypes belonging to INRA Meknes collection in Ain Taoujdate. Multivariate analysis was made on the basis of 43 pomological and biochemical characters on samples of 15 fruits for each genotype. Results showed a very high signi...

Lahcen Hssaini1,2, Hafida Haninie2, Rachid Razouk1, Ibtissame Guirrou1,3, Assia Ejjilani1,2, Abderrahman Mekaoui1, and Jamal Charafi1* 1 National Institut of Agricultural Research (INRA), regional center of Meknes, Morocco; 2 Laboratory of Bioprocess and Bio-Interfaces, Faculty of Science and Technology, Beni Mellal, Morocco ; 3 Laboratory of food...

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is one of the oilseed crops that have important agronomic and environmental benefits, mainly adaptation to arid and semi-arid environmental conditions. This enables it to be a good alternative oilseed crop for Morocco and other Mediterranean countries which are exposed to an increased climate change trend. The pr...

Molecular characterization of Moroccan local fig (Ficus carica L.) germplasm was performed on the cultivars present in a collection of the National School of Agriculture of Meknes. A total of 22 fig samples were analysed using 7 ISSR primers and 9 loci S.S.R. A total of 54 I.S.S.R. polymorphic bands with an average of 8 per primers and 42 S.S.R. al...

The main objective of this work was to evaluate use efficiency of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium in adult apple orchards in the Middle Atlas of Morocco and to establish preliminary reference norms for fertilizing this crop under local conditions. The study was based on soil and leaf analysis and data with regard to farming p...

Drought stress is one of the major abiotic factors affecting seed germination and plant growth especially in arid and semi-arid regions. In this study, we investigated the effects of drought stress on seed germination and seedling growth of five varieties of rapeseed. Seven drought stress levels of zero (control), -3, -5, -7, -9, -11 and -13 bars w...

Study of the effect of drought stress on germination and seedlings growth of five varieties of rapeseed (brassica napus).

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is an oilseed crop with high quality vegetable seed oil. A set of 55 accessions from different geographical origins were introduced to constitute a breeding program germplasm. These materials were characterized by inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) as a simple method to reveal polymorphism among them. ISSR analysis...

Genetic diversity of Moroccan almond and their relationship to foreign almond cultivars were studied. The genetic diversity of 68 accessions of local Moroccan almond [Prunus dulcis Mill.] and 32 foreign varieties from nine countries was analyzed using 16 microsatellite SSRs. Plant material is maintained at INRA Ain Taoujdate-Meknes experiment stati...

Assessment of genetic diversity of Moroccan cultivated almond (Prunus dulcis Mill.) grown from seed and cultivated at four eco-geographical regions was performed using 16 nuclear SSRs. 238 alleles were detected with an average of 14.88 alleles per locus, ranging from 4 (locus BPPCT027) to 24 (locus CPSCT018). The size of alleles ranged from 84 bp (...

Genetic mapping is essential for quantitative trait locus (QTL) identification related to interesting traits. However, only two genetic maps on olive have yet been published, with very few transferable markers. We have constructed a linkage map of the olive according to a “two‐way pseudo‐testcross” mapping strategy and based on the progeny generate...

In order to verify the reliability of hybrid population issued from crossing between 3 clones of "Picholine marocaine" cultivar and the "Picholine du Languedoc" cultivar, the descendants and their parents were analysed using 35 microsatellite loci. No offspring resulted from self crossing of "Picholine marocaine" cultivar and 218 descendants among...

A genetic map of olive tree (Olea europaea; 2n = 46) was constructed with a total of 343 markers: 35 SSRs, 272 AFLPs, 35 ISSRs, and RAPD and SCAR scored in 140 F1 progenies from the cross between ‘Picholine marocaine’ ‘PM’ (female parent) and ‘Picholine du Languedoc’‘PL’ (male parent), respectively susceptible and resistant to Spilocaea oleagina. T...

To assess the genetic diversity in Moroccan cultivated olive, Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea, we performed molecular analysis of olive trees sampled in four geographic zones representing all areas of traditional olive culture. The analysis of 215 trees using 15 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci revealed 105 alleles distributed among 60 SSR profil...

To assess the genetic diversity in Moroccan cultivated olive, Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea, we performed molecular analysis of olive trees sampled in four geographic zones representing all areas of traditional olive culture. The analysis of 215 trees using 15 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci revealed 105 alleles distributed among 60 SSR profil...

The Menara gardens in Marrakech (Morocco), established in the 12th century, comprise more than 2000 olive trees. To assess the genetic diversity within these gardens, we performed SSR analysis of 128 randomly sampled olive trees. Using 15 SSR loci which revealed 70 alleles, we identified 16 distinct genotypes. The analysis of chloroplast DNA polymo...

A genetic map of olive tree (Olea europaea; 2n = 46) was constructed with a total of 343 markers: 35 SSRs, 272 AFLPs, 35 ISSRs, and RAPD and SCAR scored in 140 F1 progenies from the cross between ‘Picholine marocaine’ ‘PM’ (female parent) and ‘Picholine du Languedoc’‘PL’ (male parent), respectively susceptible and resistant to Spilocaea oleagina. T...

In order to verify the reliability of hybrid population issued from crossing between 3 clones of "Picholine marocaine" cultivar and the "Picholine du Languedoc" cultivar, the descendants and their parents were analysed using 35 microsatellite loci. No offspring resulted from self crossing of "Picholine marocaine" cultivar and 218 descendants among...