Pollen donor affects the taste and aroma compounds in ‘Cuixiang’ and ‘Xuxiang’ kiwifruit

Abstract

To investigate the effect of different pollen donors on the flavor quality of kiwifruit, flowers of ‘Cuixiang’ and ‘Xuxiang’ kiwifruit (hexaploid Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa) were hand-pollinated with pollens from each of the following three male donors: ‘M1451’ (diploid A. chinensis), ‘M4’ (tetraploid A. chinensis), and ‘M39’ (hexaploid A. deliciosa). The resulting fruit were evaluated for their flavor quality, including non-volatile (taste) and volatile compounds (aroma). Kiwifruit pollinated by ‘M39’ were larger and heavier than those pollinated by ‘M4’ in both ‘Cuixiang’ and ‘Xuxiang’ cultivars. Fruit pollinated by ‘M39’ had higher fructose and glucose contents and lower citric acid content than fruit pollinated by ‘M4’. The contents of amino acids and volatile organic compounds varied between the fruit pollinated by ‘M4’ and ‘M39’. However, the fruit pollinated by ‘M4’ had higher contents of sweet-taste amino acids, bitter-taste amino acids, and total esters than the fruit pollinated by ‘M39’. Furthermore, the electronic tongue and electronic nose differentiated the overall taste and volatile profiles between kiwifruit that were pollinated by ‘M4’ and ‘M39’. These results confirmed that the choice of pollen donor can remarkably affect the content of non-volatile and volatile organic compounds in both ‘Cuixiang’ and ‘Xuxiang’ kiwifruit cultivars. In conclusion, the present study showed that the pollen donor can affect the flavor quality of ‘Cuixiang’ and ‘Xuxiang’ kiwifruit, thereby providing useful information for quality improvement of kiwifruit.