Abstract
Eggplant varieties rich in bioactive chlorogenic acid along with less browning are preferred by consumers. Therefore, genetics of fruit phenolics, fruit flesh colour, and browning related traits were studied in the genotypes of eggplant, comprising of nine cultivated varieties and one accession of eggplant‘s primary genepool wild relative Solanum insanum (INS2). These accessions were genotyped based on the 7335 polymorphic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers. After that, genotypes were crossed in half diallel fashion to produce 45 hybrids. The INS2 displayed the highest values for the total phenolics and chlorogenic acid content (CGA). For all of the biochemical traits studied, significant values of general and specific combining ability (GCA and SCA) effects were determined. The baker ratio estimates were high (>0.75) for all of the traits. Highly significant and positive heterosis (%) was determined for the dry matter, total phenolics, CGA, and area (%) of CGA content. The phenolics content of the fruit (total phenolics and CGA) was not significantly correlated with flesh colour and browning related traits. However, when the path coefficient analysis was performed considering the CGA as a dependent variable, it was determined that the flesh colour related traits most considerably affected the CGA. The genetic distance showed a diminutive correlation with the hybrid means, heterosis, and SCA values. Overall, this study provides important information regarding the underlying genetics of important biochemical traits of eggplant fruit.
Highlights
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is the third most consumed fruit of the family Solanaceae [1,2]
In order to develop modern eggplant cultivars with a higher content of phenolics, several kinds of genetic materials have been screened and a significant amount of variation in phenolic acid content has been observed in the cultivated varieties, wild species, and interspecific hybrids [8,9,13]
Eggplant is among the fruits with the highest phenolic compound content [27]
Summary
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is the third most consumed fruit of the family Solanaceae [1,2]. The phenolic acid content in eggplant flesh varies among cultivars, and the wild relatives of eggplant generally have higher diversity and concentrations of phenolic acid content than the modern cultivated varieties [8,9]. Various reports suggest that increasing the phenolic acid content in the fruit flesh increases the susceptibility of eggplant flesh to browning [10,11]. In this way, previous studies have pointed out that chlorogenic acid content moderately influences the fruit flesh browning in an eggplant [12]. We studied the diversity of phenolic acid content in cultivated eggplant and its wild relatives from all the primary, secondary, and tertiary genepools [8,14]
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