Diversity of Fruit Physical and Chemical Attributes of Mulberry (Morus spp.) genotypes in Fars Province of Iran

Mulberry is one of the new emerging potential fruit crops which have high nutritional value as well as good adaption to adverse climatic and soil conditions. In this experiment fruit samples of forty eight mulberry genotypes were collected from different regions of the Fars province. Fruit physical characteristics (such as length, width, fresh and dry weight and color) and the fruit biochemical compositions (such as total phenolic compounds, total anthocyanin, antioxidant activity, ascorbic acid, total soluble solid (TSS) and titratable acidity) were evaluated. Results showed that there was high variation among the mulberry genotypes for almost all of the measured fruit physical and chemical characteristics. Among fruit physical attributes fruit length, width, and fresh weight were varied from 1.5-3.38 cm, 1.06-1.63 cm and 0.867-3.69 g, respectively. Total phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity and TSS were ranged from 0.61-10.02, mg/100 g FW, 27.24-91.78% and 8.66-19.33%, respectively. Cluster analyses according to Ward method using all of measured traits, classified all of the studied genotypes into three groups, mainly based on geographic distribution and fruit color. Correlation analysis showed that fruit color and fruit anthocyanin content is significantly correlated to each other. Results anticipated that mulberry genotypes of Fars provinces are very diverse for fruit quality attributes and these results might be very useful for breeders who seeking to develop new varieties of mulberries.