DEFINIG THE FLAVOUR OF TOMATO FRUITS FROM

D´ANGELO M; ZANOR MI; CORTINAS P; LOPEZ M; PERALTA IE; CARRARI F; ASIS R; VALLE EM

Potrero de los Funes, San Luis

Congreso; Reunión ANual de la Sociedad Argentina de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2011

SAIB

Most of the commercial cultivated tomatoes in Argentina are imported hybrids. They have been mainly selected for long shelf life and pests resistances, but taste and flavor are not well accepted by consumers. Tomato populations cultivated by peasants from Argentine Andean Valleys were analyzed in this work. The goal is to contribute to incorporate these varieties with better consumer preferences to the local and regional breeding programs. Populations were screened for their agronomical and biochemical traits by 1H-NMR and GC-MS and in parallel by semi-trained panels. Primary and secondary metabolites contents and agronomical attributes were analyzed by a neuronal network approach which allowed discrimination of a discrete number of cultivars which grouped into few neurons from others interspersed into many neurons exposing the environmental variance affecting the measured characters. Moreover, hidden novel relations between the analyzed traits were found, for example, one variety negatively evaluated by sensory panels shows highly significant levels of pyruvic acid, aspartate, benzoate, 1,4-pentadiene and hexanal. On the other hand, it shows a significant low amount of terpinolene, linalool and camphor, all volatiles that contribute to accepted flavor. Overall, these data indicate that metabolic profiles could be used as good indicators of the flavor properties of tomato fruits.