Metabolomic profiling during ripening of peach fruits: common and distinct metabolic processes among peach varieties

LAURA L. MONTI; CLAUDIA A. BUSTAMANTE; SONIA OSORIO; JULIETA GABILONDO; JULIA BORSANI; MARTIN A. LAUXMANN; EVANGELINA MAULIÓN; GABRIEL VALENTINI; CLAUDIO O. BUDDE; ALISDAIR R. FERNIE; MARÍA V. LARA; MARÍA F. DRINCOVICH

FOOD CHEMISTRY

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2015 vol. 190 p. 879 - 888

0308-8146

Peach (Prunus persica) fruits from different varieties display differential organoleptic and nutritionalproperties, characteristics related to their chemical composition. Here, chemical biodiversity of peachfruits from fifteen varieties, at harvest and after post-harvest ripening, was explored by gas chromatography?mass spectrometry. Metabolic profiling revealed that metabolites involved in organoleptic properties(sugars, organic and amino acids), stress tolerance (raffinose, galactinol, maltitol), and withnutritional properties (amino, caffeoylquinic and dehydroascorbic acids) displayed variety-dependentlevels. Peach varieties clustered into four groups: two groups of early-harvest varieties with higher aminoacid levels; two groups of mid- and late-harvest varieties with higher maltose levels. Further separationwas mostly dependent on organic acids/raffinose levels. Variety-dependent and independent metabolicchanges associated with ripening were detected; which contribute to chemical diversity or can be usedas ripening markers, respectively. The great variety-dependent diversity in the content of metabolitesthat define fruit quality reinforces metabolomics usage as a tool to assist fruit quality improvement inpeach.