Metabolic characterization of loci affecting sensory attributes in tomato allows an assessment of the influence of the levels of primary metabolites and volatile organic contents

Abstract

Numerous studies have revealed the extent of genetic and phenotypic variation between both species and cultivars of tomato. Using a series of tomato lines resulting from crosses between a cherry tomato and three independent large fruit cultivar (Levovil, VilB, and VilD), extensive profiling of both central primary metabolism and volatile organic components of the fruit was performed. In this study, it was possible to define a number of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) which determined the levels of primary metabolites and/or volatile organic components and to evaluate their co-location with previously defined organoleptic QTLs. Correlation analyses between either the primary metabolites or the volatile organic compounds and organoleptic properties revealed a number of interesting associations, including pharmaceutical aroma–guaiacol and sourness–alanine, across the data set. Considerable correlation within the levels of primary metabolites or volatile organic compounds, respectively, were also observed. However, there was relatively little association between the levels of primary metabolites and volatile organic compounds, implying that they are not tightly linked to one another. A notable exception to this was the strong association between the levels of sucrose and those of a number of volatile organic compounds. The combined data presented here are thus discussed both with respect to those obtained recently from wide interspecific crosses of tomato and within the framework of current understanding of the chemical basis of fruit taste.

Genetic dissection of aroma volatile compounds from the essential oil of peach fruit: QTL analysis and identification of candidate genes using dense SNP maps

“…Similar observations have been reported in apple (Dunemann et al 2009;Rowan et al 2009b), strawberry (Olbricht et al 2008;Zorrilla-Fontanesi et al 2012), rose (Spiller et al 2010), and in non Rosaceae species, such as tomato (Tadmor et al 2002;Zanor et al 2009), grape (Doligez et al 2006), andeucalypt (O'Reilly-Wapstra et al 2011).…”

“…A similar pattern has been observed in apple and was explained as the result of tight linkage between distinct loci or pleiotropic effects of a single locus (Dunemann et al 2009). Clustering of QTLs controlling VOCs with similar chemical structure was also found in Arabidopsis (Lisec et al 2008), tomato (Zanor et al 2009), and very recently in strawberry (Zorrilla-Fontanesi et al 2012). In our case, it remains to be established whether the observed QTL clusters correspond to a tight linkage between distinct loci, to genes acting upstream in the respective VOC metabolic pathways or are due to other pleiotropic effects.…”

“…Improved genotyping capacity (Agarwal et al 2008) and VOC quantification methods (Tholl and Rose 2006) are now enabling the application of quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis to aroma components. Several studies have addressed the identification of QTLs for VOCs in Rosaceae species as apple (Zini et al 2005;Dunemann et al 2009;Rowan et al 2009a), rose (Spiller et al 2010), and strawberry (Zorrilla-Fontanesi et al 2012) and in other plant species including tomato (SalibaColombani et al 2001;Tadmor et al 2002;Mathieu et al 2009;Zanor et al 2009), grape (Doligez et al 2006), melon (Obando-Ulloa et al 2008), rice (Amarawathi et al 2008), eucalypt (Henery et al 2007; O' Reilly-Wapstra et al 2011), and tobacco (Julio et al 2006). Conversely, no QTLs underlying peach fruit aroma have been reported.…”

Genetic Diversity in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and Its Wild Relatives

“…Metabolite QTL (mQTL) can be now identified for non-volatile metabolites like sugars, pigments or volatiles compounds (Bovy, Schijlen et al 2007). This was done on several interspecific populations, notably on S. lycopersicum x S. Chmielewskii (Do, Prudent et al 2010) and intraspecific crosses (Saliba-Colombani et al 2001;Causse, SalibaColombani et al 2002;Zanor, Rambla et al 2009). Recent technologies allowed screening for diversity in a wide range of components on whole genomes.…”

A Role for Differential Glycoconjugation in the Emission of Phenylpropanoid Volatiles from Tomato Fruit Discovered Using a Metabolic Data Fusion Approach

“…Volatiles are considered as major determinants of tomato fruit flavor (Buttery et al, 1987;Buttery and Ling, 1993;Baldwin et al, 1998Baldwin et al, , 2000Tandon et al, 2000;Krumbein et al, 2004;Ruiz et al, 2005;Tieman et al, 2006;Kovács et al, 2009;Zanor et al, 2009). Several hundred tomato fruit volatile compounds have been described in the literature (Petro-Turza, 1987), but only a small part of this diversity is believed to have an impact on tomato fruit organoleptic properties (Buttery and Ling, 1993;Baldwin et al, 2000).…”