Smart breeding for salad rocket: a strategy for improving taste, flavor and nutrition

Abstract

Eruca sativa (salad rocket) is a leafy salad that contains numerous health beneficial compounds. These include glucosinolates and their hydrolysis products isothiocyanates, which have anti-carcinogenic properties. These compounds also influence taste and flavour of leaves, giving hot, pungent and bitter sensations. Breeding efforts for minor crops such as rocket have to-date been restricted to morphological traits. We outline a strategy for collaboration between academia and industry to improve advanced traits such as phytochemical composition, taste, flavour and nutrition. This can be achieved by combining the development of genetic resources, utilisation of next generation sequencing technologies and bioinformatics with sensory and phytochemical analyses. The implementation of such technologies into minor crop breeding programs will speed up the development of new cultivars and greatly improve understanding of an underutilised Brassicaceae crop.