DEFINIG THE FLAVOUR OF TOMATO FRUITS FROM METABOLITE PROFILES AND SENSORY ANALYSES

D'ANGELO MATILDE; ZANOR MARÍA INÉS; CORTINAS PABLO; LOPEZ MARIANA; PERALTA IRIS; CARRARI FERNANDO; ASIS RAMÓN; VALLE ESTELA

Potrero de los Funes, San Luis

Congreso; 47 Annual Meeting Argentine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; 2011

SAIB

Most of the commercial cultivated tomatoes in Argentina areimported hybrids. They have been mainly selected for long shelflife and pests resistances, but taste and flavor are not well acceptedby consumers. Tomato populations cultivated by peasants fromArgentine Andean Valleys were analyzed in this work. The goal isto contribute to incorporate these varieties with better consumerpreferences to the local and regional breeding programs.Populations were screened for their agronomical and biochemicaltraits by 1H-NMR and GC-MS and in parallel by semi-trainedpanels. Primary and secondary metabolites contents andagronomical attributes were analyzed by a neuronal networkapproach which allowed discrimination of a discrete number ofcultivars which grouped into few neurons from others interspersedinto many neurons exposing the environmental variance affectingthe measured characters. Moreover, hidden novel relations betweenthe analyzed traits were found, for example, one variety negativelyevaluated by sensory panels shows highly significant levels ofpyruvic acid, aspartate, benzoate, 1,4-pentadiene and hexanal. Onthe other hand, it shows a significant low amount of terpinolene,linalool and camphor, all volatiles that contribute to acceptedflavor. Overall, these data indicate that metabolic profiles could beused as good indicators of the flavor properties of tomato fruits.