En Varsovia, invitado por la organización de este congreso sobre nuestras investigaciones en melón este mes de Septiembre dentro de los proyectos financiados por el Ministerio de Economía e Innovación y los fondos regionales EU-FEDER y la Fundación Séneca de la Región de Murcia. La conferencia claro es en inglés, pero podéis aprovechar las herramientas de Google Translator.
Esta es la referencia del congreso que os menciono:
Fernández-Trujillo, J.P. Dos-Santos,
N., Bueso, M.C. Esteva, J., Martínez, J.A., Monforte, A.J. 2013. Melon fresh fruit quality
from field to fork: A quality-oriented
breeding and multivariate perspective. En: Quality of fresh produce, herbs and vegetables –
from field to fork; September 18-19, 2013. Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW. Warsaw,
Poland. Conferencia invitada. Book of abstracts p.39-40.
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A conference entitled:
"Melon fresh fruit quality from field to fork: A quality-oriented breeding and multivariate perspective" was delivered on Thursday 19 September in a international mini-Workshop entitled "Quality of fresh produce, herbs and vegetables – from field to fork" organized in Warsaw (Poland) by Prof. Marek Gjewski, the lider of the Pakeltu Horticulture Warsaw Plant Heatlh Initiative during September 18-19. Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW. Warsaw, Poland.
I was invited to participate in this mini-workshop together with other colleagues from different part of Europe. This is the link of the content of the mini-workshop..
http://f2f.woiak.sggw.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=59&Itemid=148&lang=en
And this is a copy of the book of abstracts.
Melon fresh fruit quality from field to fork: A
quality-oriented breeding and multivariate perspective
JUAN PABLO FERNÁNDEZ TRUJILLO1,*, NOELIA DOS-SANTOS1,
MARíA C. BUESO2, JUAN ESTEVA3, juan antonio martínez3,
ANTONIO J. MONFORTE4
1 Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering. Technical University of
Cartagena (UPCT). Paseo Alfonso XIII, 48. ETSIA and Institute of
Plant Biotechnology. E-30203 Cartagena
(Murcia), Spain.
2 Department of Applied Mathematics
and Statistics. UPCT. Campus Muralla del
Mar, Doctor Fleming s/n. ETSII. E-30202 Cartagena (Murcia), Spain.
3 Department of Plant Production. UPCT.
Paseo Alfonso XIII, 48. ETSIA and Institute of Plant Biotechnology. 30203 Cartagena (Murcia),
Spain
4 Instituto
de Biología Molecular y Celular
de Plantas (IBMCP).
CSIC/UPV. Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación - Edificio
8E Ingeniero Fausto Elio s/n, 46022
Valencia, Spain.
Melon quality is a multivariate character with critical importance
for melon consumers. Quality of horticultural crops can be measured instrumentally
qualitatively or quantitatively but the sensory perception is the key trait for
consumers. Fruit properties measured instrumentally may help us to verify
proper fruit quality depending on the link of the postharvest chain involved.
This conference summarizes results particularly from a quality-oriented
breeding perspective that could contribute to improve or keep melon fruit
quality. Examples of identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs)
associated with pre and postharvest factors affecting final fruit quality are
reported.
Preharvest factors
and/or postharvest manipulation (storage, transport) may induce several fruit
disorders as melon cracking that we have reviewed recently. A combination of
different preharvest and postharvest factors contributes to the development of
this disorder. In greenhouse production, environmental effects can be minimized
but in open-field production uncontrolled factors as excessive rain and sun
exposure together with inappropriate fertigation and lack of preharvest
treatments contribute to a sudden development of the disorder as soon as two
weeks before harvest and during the harvest season. Inadequate harvest and
postharvest practices and genetic factors have also been identified as critical
with some commercial cultivars, accessions and near-isogenic lines (NILs) of
melon more prone to suffer cracking than others. Particularly QTLs associated
with climacteric ripening or non-climacteric ripening have been identified for
example in chromosomes III, VI and X of melon.
Another set of critical quality traits for consumer choices most of them having an important genetic component
apart from environmental or environmental x genetic components are morphological
traits (fruit size and shape), aspect, netting, sutures, spots, fruit color,
aroma, texture, and nutrient content (sugars, organic acids and amino acids,
carotenoids, vitamins, etc.). Other complex traits of interest are for example
the potentiality of the cultivar for fresh-cut product or the expected
shelf-life, or improved resistance to physiological disorders (mealiness,
chilling injury during storage, etc.), weight loss or decay. Successful
attempts to modify some characters associated with physical traits are in
progress, whereas the manipulation of external fruit
characteristics as perfect round-shape and reduced size, netted melons instead
of non-netted ones, etc. is currently feasible by selecting QTLs mapped during
the last 10 years and of the relatively high heritability of these characters.
Melon aroma is a very complex trait that
depends on the combination of multiple individual compounds that can be
measured either destructively or nondestructively during melon ripening. Headspace
solid phase microextraction (SPME) or stir-bar sorptive absorption (HSSE, SBSE)
to extract and later characterize melon aroma by gas-chromatography
mass-spectrometry allow obtaining a melon profile to optimize harvest and
purchase experiences. Some aromas typical of recently harvested melons and
senescent melons have been identified using NILs. Also, ethylene-dependent and
independent aroma during ripening and the principal one from a quantitative and
olfactory point of view are reported, mostly acetate, non-acetate and
sulfur-derived ester compounds, alcohols and aldehydes in the flesh and also
some characteristic terpenes in the skin. Aromatic precursors of these aroma
volatiles include lipids but also aminoacids (phenylalanine, methionine,
leucine, isoleucine, or valine) or carotenoids. The complexity of quality
traits and especially melon aroma requires the application of statistical
multivariate methods in order to represent the high-dimensional observed data
sets into lower-dimensional spaces to extract the most discriminant features. Partial
least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and random forest (RF) analysis together
with some descriptive methods such as principal component analyses are very
useful to correlate sensory and instrumental measurements. In addition, these
methods have revealed useful to detect interesting QTL effects in near-isogenic
lines of melon or to identify the main discriminant differences among melon
cultivars. Finally, other statistical techniques such as hierarchical
clustering are being tested in order to discern the main metabolic pathways and
potential aroma precursors responsible of melon aroma.
Melon texture is one of the traits more important in the
development of the last melon cultivars, particularly because of the great link
with “long-life” characters. Firm and crunchy texture seems to be one of the
keys of successful new cultivars but having the same flavor than the
traditional cultivars. Textural traits with double use such as flesh juiciness
or undesirable traits such as mealy texture should be taken into account.
Many traits reported above are ripening-dependent and
particularly ethylene-dependent or ethylene-independent traits. Climacteric
types have both kind of traits, but skin color, aroma, texture, or nutrient
content are really important in some climacteric types. Two introgressions of the melon accession PI 161375 into the ´Piel
de sapo´ genetic background located in linkage groups III and VI interact
epistatically and advances climacteric response due to advanced ethylene biosynthesis.
These types of climacteric NILs obtained from non-climacteric parentals have
been very useful for diverse quality and physiological studies.
Mapping QTLs of complex sensory traits and changes in
diverse situations of the postharvest chain is still underway. An important
variability depending on ethnic and consumer attitude is critical but
multivariate methodologies help to determine the main factors in order to determine
global quality acceptance. Critical attributes are textural traits in
non-climacteric types or retro-nasal aroma and off-flavors in climacteric and
aromatic cultivars. However, companies are more prone to use new traits to
differentiate new cultivars in the market such as exotic ones as the
introduction of a QTL on LG VIII for high acidic-taste melons with increased
citric acid content.
The new biotechnological
and genomic tools useful for improving melon quality include the sequence of
the melon genome, molecular markers, dense genetic maps, TILLING and ECOTILLING
platforms, microarrays for gene expression, etc. The integration of this
knowledge with cost-effective Next-Generation Sequencing approaches as RNAseq
or Genotype by Sequence will speed up the design of new cultivars that will meet
consumer expectations under different postharvest
scenario.
