Guanajuato, Gto., October 2, 2015.- Researchers from different institutions in the state of Guanajuato, participated in a scientific research with the purpose to promote the use and preservation of the bighorn quince.
Bighorn quince is a Mexican native fruit that even in southern regions in South USA and Central America, its greatest distribution is located in Guanajuato, Querétaro, Hidalgo and the State of Mexico.
University of Guanajuato professor, Dr. Alberto Nuñez Colín, together with researchers from the "Universidad Politécnica de Guanajuato" (Polytechnic University of Guanajuato) and the National Institute of Forest and Agricultural Research (INIFAP for its acronym in Spanish) participated in this research.
This research consisted in evaluating the diversity of the bighorn quince in central Mexico due to its seed characteristics and DNA; as well as characterizing its nutritional and functional value as an alternative fruit, besides mapping the distribution in a natural way.
As a result form this research, eight additional studies were obtained, three are complementary on the diversity of the fruit, two more are focused in analyzing the nutritional-functional composition and one more on its processing in raisins.
Likewise, two more studies were developed on distribution and eco-climatic variability from the bighorn quince.
The research is titled "Variablidad genética del menbrillo cimarrón (Malacomeles denticulata [Kunth] Jones) obtenida mediante marcadores Inter Secuencias Simples Repetidas o Intermicrosatélites". (Genetic variability of the bighorn quince (Malacomeles denticulata [Kunth] Jones) obtained through Simple Repeated or Inter-micro-satellites Inter-sequence markers).
These project, besides from Dr. Nuñez Colin, who is a professor at the Agro-industrial Engineering Department from the Science and Engineering Sciences Division at Campus Celaya-Salvatierra, also has the participation from Dr. Gabriela Medina Ramos, Full-time professor in Agro-industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Guanajuato and Dr. Mario González Chavira from INIFAP.
