Contrasting metabolic profiles of tasty Andean varieties of tomato fruit in comparison with commercial ones

D'ANGELO, MATILDE; ZANOR, MARÍA I; SANCE, MARÍA; CORTINA, PABLO R; BOGGIO, SILVANA B; ASPRELLI, PABLO; CARRARI, FERNANDO; SANTIAGO, ANA N; ASÍS, RAMÓN; PERALTA, IRIS E; VALLE, ESTELA M

JOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD

Año: 2018

0022-5142

BACKGROUND: The fruits of most commercial tomato cultivars (Solanum lycopersicum L.) are deficient in flavour. In contrast, traditional ?criollo? tomato varieties are appreciated for fruit of excellent organoleptic quality. Small farmers from the Andean valleys in Argentina have maintained their own tomato varieties, which were selected mainly for flavour. This work aims to correlate the chemical composition of the fruit with the sensory attributes of eight heirloom tomato varieties. The long-term goalistoidentifypotentialcandidategenescapableofalteringthechemicalsinvolvedinflavour.RESULTS: A sensory analysis was conducted and the metabolomics of fruit were determined. The data revealed that defined tomato aroma and sourness correlated with citrate and several volatile organic compounds (VOC), such as 𝜶-terpineol, p-menth-1-en-9-al,linalooland3,6-dimethyl-2,3,3a,4,5,7a-hexahydrobenzofuran(DMHEX),anovelvolatilerecentlyidentified intomato.Twosensoryattributes ? sweetnessandanot-acidictaste ? correlatedwiththecharacteristictomatotaste,andalso withfructose,glucose,andtwoVOCs,benzaldehyde,and2-methyl-2-octen-4-one.CONCLUSIONS:Thesedataprovidenewevidenceofthecomplexchemicalcombinationthatinducedtheflavourandaromaof the good-tasting ?criollo? tomato fruit. That is, the compounds that correlated with defined tomato aroma and acidic taste did notcorrelatewithsweetness,orwithcharacteristictomatotaste.