Volatile Profile Comparison of USDA Sweet Orange-like Hybrids versus ‘Hamlin’ and ‘Ambersweet’

Abstract

Six ‘Ambersweet’-derived hybrids, similar to sweet orange fruit size, color, and taste and potential as new sweet orange cultivars, were selected to determine their fruit categorization by comparison of their volatile profiles with the parent and ‘Hamlin’, a typical sweet orange. All hybrids are at least ½ sweet orange and varying amounts of mandarin, grapefruit, Poncirus trifoliata, and sour orange in each pedigree. In total, 135 volatiles were detected in the eight hybrid lines/commercial cultivars over two harvests, and 20 compounds were detected in all samples, including terpenes (limonene, β-myrcene, α-pinene, α-terpinene, α-terpineol, and linalool), esters (ethyl butanote, ethyl pentanoate, and ethyl acetate), aldehydes (acetaldehyde, hexanal, and nonanal), and alcohols (ethanol and hexanol). Total abundance of volatiles in January-harvested fruits averaged 30% higher than for fruits of the same trees harvested in November. ‘Ambersweet’ contained the highest total amount of volatiles (mainly as a result of very high levels of monoterpenes), and of them, nootkatone and six other compounds were not detected in any of the hybrids, and some of them were also not detected in ‘Hamlin’. On the other hand, 12 compounds, including pentanal, ethyl 2-butenoate, and ethyl nonanoate, were not detected in ‘Ambersweet’ but were found in ‘Hamlin’ and some of the hybrids. Cluster analysis separated the cultivar/hybrid and harvest time combinations into three clusters. FF-1-76-50, FF-1-76-52 and January FF-1-75-55, all with the same parents (‘Ambersweet’ × FF-1-30-52), were close to FF-1-65-55, but they were separated from ‘Hamlin’ and further separated from ‘Ambersweet’. The cluster containing ‘Hamlin’ has three subclusters: January ‘Hamlin’ and November FF-1-74-14, a hybrid with one-eighth P. trifoliata, which includes a slight off-flavor frequently found in P. trifoliata hybrids, independent of each other, and both were separated from a group of November ‘Hamlin’, FF-1-64-97, and FF-1-75-55. The cluster containing ‘Ambersweet’ included January FF-1-64-97. A principle component analysis (PCA) separated ‘Ambersweet’ from all hybrids and ‘Hamlin’ along the PC1 axis and separated November harvests from January harvests along PC2. This volatile analysis supports the classification of the hybrids as sweet orange.