Exploring Genotype-by-Environment Interactions of Chemical Composition of Raspberry by Using a Metabolomics Approach.

Sara Durán-Soria,Karolina Celejewska,Erika Krüger,Mariusz Lewandowski,Frank Will,Agnieszka Masny,Nikki Jennings,Jennifer Mesa-Marín,Edward Żurawicz,Delphine Pott,Sonia Osorio,Anita Sønsteby

doi:10.3390/metabo11080490

Abstract

Promoting the consumption of fruits is a key objective of nutrition policy campaigns due to their associated health benefits. Raspberries are well appreciated for their remarkable flavor and nutritional value attributable to their antioxidant properties. Consequently, one of the objectives of present-day raspberry breeding programs is to improve the fruit’s sensory and nutritive characteristics. However, developing new genotypes with enhanced quality traits is a complex task due to the intricate impacts genetic and environmental factors have on these attributes, and the difficulty to phenotype them. We used a multi-platform metabolomic approach to compare flavor- and nutritional-related metabolite profiles of four raspberry cultivars (‘Glen Ample’, ‘Schönemann’, ‘Tulameen’ and ‘Veten’) grown in different European climates. Although the cultivars appear to be better adapted to high latitudes, for their content in soluble solids and acidity, multivariate statistical analyses allowed us to underscore important genotypic differences based on the profiles of important metabolites. ‘Schönemann’ and ‘Veten’ were characterized by high levels of anthocyanins and ellagitannins, respectively, ‘Tulameen’ by its acidity, and ‘Glen Ample’ for its content of sucrose and β-ionone, two main flavor contributors. Our results confirmed the value of metabolomic-driven approaches, which may foster the development of cultivars with enhanced health properties and flavor.

Highlights

Red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) is one of the most important berry fruit crops whose consumption has increased dramatically over the last decade [1]
Health benefits rely on the composition of secondary metabolites, in particular, polyphenols, like anthocyanins and ellagitannins [4], while the overall flavor is mainly due to content of sugars, acids, and volatile compounds [5]
While the present knowledge about the complex genetic architecture of fruit quality attributes has been extensively improved since the development of quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) approaches, combined with high throughput metabolomic platforms [40], the impact of the environment on fruit metabolite composition is still poorly understood, its analysis being hampered by current unstable climatic conditions triggered by climate change [41,42,43,44,45]

Summary

Introduction

Red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) is one of the most important berry fruit crops whose consumption has increased dramatically over the last decade [1]. Up to now, combining metabolomics with two major approaches, (i) quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis that usually focuses on bi-parental populations, and (ii) genome-wide association studies (GWAS), has proven to be a powerful tool to dissect complex metabolic traits and aid in crop improvement through maker-assisted selection [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17] In this regard, metabolic profiling coupled with the QTL mapping approach has been successfully carried out to identify different regulatory and structural genes involved in the control of metabolite level in raspberry fruits for volatile organic compounds, anthocyanins, and antioxidant capacity [18,19,20,21,22]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion