Physiological relationships among physical, sensory, and morphological attributes of texture in tomato fruits

Abstract

Tomato texture is one of the critical components for the consumer's perception of fruit quality. Texture is a complex character composed of several attributes that are difficult to evaluate and which change during fruit ripening. This study investigated the texture of tomato fruits at the rheological, sensory, morphological, and genetic levels, and attempted to correlate several parameters. Analyses were performed on tomato fruits from introgressed lines carrying quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with texture traits localized on different chromosomes, in two genetic backgrounds. Rheological measurements were used to determine resistance to deformation and fruit elasticity. Sensory analysis was used to assess flesh firmness, juiciness, mealiness, and skin toughness. Image analysis was used to study fruit morphology and to define the cellular structure and heterogeneity of the pericarp. A highly significant correlation was observed between instrumental and sensory firmness. Moreover, correlations were also established between some texture traits and parameters of the pericarp cellular structure. Compared with QTLs detected in a previous study, the phenotypic effects expected for mealiness were confirmed in all lines, whereas, for firmness, they were not confirmed. Significant interactions between QTL and genetic background were observed for several traits. In addition, kinetic analysis showed that differences in firmness occurred from the early stages of fruit development. These results provide both a broad description of texture components and preliminary information to understand their genetic control.

Gene and Metabolite Regulatory Network Analysis of Early Developing Fruit Tissues Highlights New Candidate Genes for the Control of Tomato Fruit Composition and Development

“…cell volume, shape, and adhesion; Fig. 1) that affect visual aspect and major texture attributes of the fruit (Rose and Bennett, 1999;Cheniclet et al, 2005;Chaïb et al, 2007;Guillon et al, 2008). To get an insight into the regulation of the developmental and metabolic processes taking place in expanding fruit tissues, we analyzed at cytological, transcriptomic, and metabolic levels two major tomato fruit tissues, the mesocarp and the locular tissue, from the end of the cell division period to the end of the cell expansion period and combined these data.…”

“…Both the nutritional and the sensorial attributes are built throughout the successive phases of fruit development, namely cell division, cell expansion, and ripening. While the fruitripening process is obviously important (Giovannoni, 2001), there is also a growing body of evidence that supports the key role of early fruit development for the acquisition of several fruit quality traits, including the accumulation of sugars and organic acids (Guillet et al, 2002;Lemaire-Chamley et al, 2005;Petreikov et al, 2006), the determination of cell wall and texture characteristics (Chaïb et al, 2007), and the cuticle biosynthesis (Mintz-Oron et al, 2008). In the growing fruit, these processes mainly take place during the cell expansion phase, which sustains fruit growth by allowing a large increase in fruit cell volume linked with membrane and cell wall/synthesis and the con-comitant accumulation of water, mineral ions, and metabolites in the vacuoles, thereby conferring its fleshy characteristics to the fruit.…”

Utilization of physicochemical variables developed from changes in sensory attributes and consumer acceptability to predict the shelf life of fresh-cut mango fruit

“…Correlation between sensory attributes and physicochemical changes had been analyzed in several products (Hough et al 2002;Wittig de Penna et al 2005). In fruits, the correlation between texture and color has been analyzed in plum, apple, tomato, and pineapple (Plocharski and Konopacka 2003;Mehinagic et al 2004;Chaïb et al 2007;Schulbach et al 2007).…”

High-Resolution Mapping of a Fruit Firmness-Related Quantitative Trait Locus in Tomato Reveals Epistatic Interactions Associated with a Complex Combinatorial Locus

“…Fruit firmness is determined by a number of factors including cell wall structure, turgor (Saladié et al, 2007), and cuticle properties (Chaïb et al, 2007) and is therefore likely to be a highly complex trait, involving numerous genes and pathways (Brummell and Harpster, 2001). Extensive research has focused on the biochemical and molecular aspects of fruit ripening using tomato as a model system.…”