plants Article Morphological and Chemical Profile of Three Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Landraces of A Semi-Arid Mediterranean Environment Massimiliano Renna 1 , Massimiliano D’Imperio 1 , Maria Gonnella 1,* , Miriana Durante 2, Angelo Parente 1, Giovanni Mita 2 , Pietro Santamaria 3 and Francesco Serio 1 1 Department, Institute of Sciences of Food Production, CNR—National Research Council of Italy, Via Amendola 122/O, 70126 Bari, Italy 2 Department, Institute of Sciences of Food Production (ISPA), CNR, via Lecce-Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy 3 Department of Agricultural and Environmental Science, University of Bari Aldo Moro, via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-080-592-9306 Received: 20 June 2019; Accepted: 6 August 2019; Published: 8 August 2019 Abstract: Puglia (Southern Italy), particularly rich in tomato agro-biodiversity, can be considered a typical region of the semi-arid Mediterranean environments. In this study, three local varieties of tomato (Manduria, Giallo di Crispiano and Regina) were characterized by using morphological descriptors according to international standards. Chemical (isoprenoids, ascorbic acid, total phenols, sugars and mineral content) and agronomic assessment were carried out to highlight the specific traits of these local varieties well adapted to a semi-arid environment. Data of morphological traits according to the “International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants” (UPOV) guideline evidenced a clear distinctness among all three landraces, especially as regards fruits. Results also highlighted that a great part of variation in chemical traits was almost exclusively due to genotypes, while in a few cases observed differences resulted from the interaction between genotype and harvest time.