Metabolite profiling characterises chemotypes of Musa diploids and triploids at juvenile and pre-flowering growth stages

Abstract

Bananas (Musa spp.) are consumed worldwide as dessert and cooking types. Edible banana varieties are for the most part seedless and sterile and therefore vegetatively propagated. This confers difficulties for breeding approaches against pressing biotic and abiotic threats and for the nutritional enhancement of banana pulp. A panel of banana accessions, representative of the diversity of wild and cultivated bananas, was analysed to assess the range of chemotypes available globally. The focus of this assessment was banana leaves at two growth stages (juvenile and pre-flowering), to see when during the plant growth metabolic differences can be established. The metabolic data corresponded to genomic trends reported in previous studies and demonstrated a link between metabolites/pathways and the genomes of M. acuminata and M. balbisiana. Furthermore, the vigour and resistance traits of M. balbisiana was connected to the phenolic composition and showed differences with the number of B genes in the hybrid accessions. Differences in the juvenile and pre-flowering data led to low correlation between the growth stages for prediction purposes.

Safeguarding and using global banana diversity: a holistic approach

“…Subsequent analyses could be facilitated by selecting priority material coming from genebanks or by transferring promising material to genebanks as a later step. Finally, metabolomics studies were initiated on banana as proofs of concept and enabled the identification of specific metabolite profiles using a diversity panel of 38 genebank accessions (Drapal et al 2019), now being extended to breeding material (Drapal et al 2020). The ideal scenario is that the molecular analysis is integrated and combined with phenotyping (Zivy et al 2015;Jamil et al 2020).…”

Metabolite database for root, tuber, and banana crops to facilitate modern breeding in understudied crops

“…The analysis of isoprenoid derived metabolites, such as carotenoids and chlorophylls, was carried out using ultra high or high performance liquid chromatography coupled with a diode array detector (U/HPLC‐DAD). As the composition of leaf and tuber materials has been reported extensively (Burns et al , ; Drapal et al , ; Price et al , ; Drapal et al , ; Drapal et al , ) and methods previously validated (Fraser et al , ; Nogueira et al , ), this was performed in a semitargeted mode in which the majority of compounds was quantified absolutely. This approach remains essential due to the intrinsic chemical nature of the photosynthetic pigments displaying a lack of amenability to MS.…”

“…The tissue samples were then ground to a fine powder and metabolites extracted. Sample preparation and extraction and the profiling procedure of the extracts was based on previously published protocols and optimized for each crop to account for the matrix effects of the respective tissue (Perez‐Fons et al , ; Price et al , ; Drapal et al , ; Price et al , ; Price et al , ; Drapal et al , ; Drapal et al , ; Drapal et al , ). To account for the difference in chemical properties of the metabolites, three different platforms were utilized in a modular manner for the screening process: ultra/high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (U/HPLC‐DAD), liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry (LC‐MS) and gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS).…”

Metabolomics in CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB)

“…A panel of 38 banana accessions, representative of the diversity of wild and cultivated bananas, was analyzed to assess the range of chemotypes available globally (Drapal et al 2019a). The 105 metabolites identified comprised a range of intermediates of primary and secondary metabolic pathways, with the widest metabolic diversity primarily found in the wild Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana accessions.…”

“…Likewise, additional metabolic profiles conducted on cassava whitefly-resistant families of accessions highlight the importance of structuring families with contrasting traits under similar genetic backgrounds (Becerra, personal communication), thus facilitating the discovery of biomarkers for breeding. In banana, metabolic profiling showed several metabolites to be more prevalent in the B genome, which could be related to biotic stress tolerance (Drapal et al 2019a). For example, the metabolite data of Calcutta 4, a parent usually used in crosses to confer resistance to various diseases, showed above-average levels of rutin, chlorogenic acid and caffeoyl-malate, which could be related to its resistance traits.…”