Abstract
Romania has a wide variety of local landraces and heirloom genotypes. Our study aims to assess the performance of twenty halotolerant tomato landraces, collected from areas with medium and high levels of soil salinity, in terms ofthe accumulation of antioxidant compounds in fruits and to cluster them according to their nutraceutical components. The tomatoes used in the study were harvested once they had attained full ripeness and then analyzed for lycopene (Lyc), ascorbic acid content (AsA), total phenolic content (TPC), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). The results revealed major differences between genotypes in terms of nutraceutical values. According to principal component analysis, the tomato landraces were grouped into five clusters, characterized by different proportions of compounds with antioxidant activity. The high/moderate nutritional values of Lyc, TAC, TPC, and AsA were obtained from varieties taken from local lands with high soil salinity, over 6.5 dS m−1. These findings support the idea that metabolites and secondary antioxidants are involved in the process of stress adaptation, thereby increasing salinity tolerance in tomatoes. Our results show that there are tomato landraces with a tolerance of adaptation to conditions of high soil salinity and provide information on their ability to synthesize molecules with antioxidant functions that protect plants against oxidative damage.
Highlights
The commercial production of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) in the developed regions of the world mostly concerns modern varieties of the fruit, and, more often than not, genetically uniformF1 hybrids that have a high yield, greater tolerance to diseases, and a long shelf life are chosen [1].Agronomy 2020, 10, 500; doi:10.3390/agronomy10040500 www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomyLandraces represent an important alternative, as they constitute a reservoir of genetic diversity, with their important abiotic stress tolerance and high fruit quality
The analysis of the results confirms that the above-presented genotypes with high synthesis capacity of the ascorbic acid content (AsA) have manifested very good qualities of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total phenolic content (TPC) (Table 2).The results prove that the AsA content is conditioned by genotype to a minimal extent
The results reveal that the 20 tomato landraces with tolerance to salinity have high potential in
Summary
The commercial production of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) in the developed regions of the world mostly concerns modern varieties of the fruit, and, more often than not, genetically uniformF1 hybrids that have a high yield, greater tolerance to diseases, and a long shelf life are chosen [1].Agronomy 2020, 10, 500; doi:10.3390/agronomy10040500 www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomyLandraces represent an important alternative, as they constitute a reservoir of genetic diversity, with their important abiotic stress tolerance and high fruit quality. Tomato landraces contain valuable alleles uncommon in highlight germplasms [2]; these local populations represent a valuable resource of genetic traits that can be used in breeding programs for the improvement of the crop [3]. Consumption of the traditional plant foods that have antioxidant content naturally occurring may be a better strategy to improve the human health status than the consumption of artificial antioxidant products [4]. From this perspective, an appropriate selection of tomato cultivar would help to achieve a higher antioxidant intake with the potential to produce significant health benefits. Landraces have low requirements for inputs, which contribute to the development of environmentally-friendly technologies [8,9,10]
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