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• Mbidde bananas show distinct metabolite profile linked to unfavourable sensory properties. • Metabolites associated with sour, sweet, and bitter taste are increased in Mbidde bananas. • Mbidde and Matooke bananas can be defined by distinct metabolites. • Matooke, Mchare and plantains display differential regulation of phenylpropanoid formation. • Metabolomics can contribute to breeding bananas with better consumer quality. Breeding programs for disease resistant bananas in Sub-Saharan Africa generated resistant bananas, which did not meet fruit quality characteristics preferred by consumers. The present study aimed to establish chemotypes underlying preferred cooking bananas of Matooke, Mchare and plantain and less preferred Mbidde bananas, used for beer brewing. The metabolite data of Mbidde showed higher levels of metabolites associated with sour, sweet, and astringent taste; as well as different textural properties associated with cell wall composition and lignin content. Significant differences in the majority of specialised and primary metabolites were observed in the pulp of cooking banana groups. Analysis of peel tissue indicated similar metabolic differences in the protective layer surrounding the pulp and suggested a distinct genetic regulation of phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathways between the genome groups. In summary, the present data can be used to establish metabolic traits associated with consumer preference, which can augment modern breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern potato breeding programmes have to balance agronomic and consumer preferences, as they seek to develop high yielding and nutritious potatoes that are tolerant to abiotic/biotic stresses. The recent focus on consumer preference has generated sensory data to assess potato flavour intensity, umami, sweetness, sourness, bitterness and mealiness in a panel of 60 cultivated and four wild potato accessions. The potato tubers were assessed immediately after harvest and after a five-week cold storage period. The cultivated accessions included diploid landraces of S. tuberosum L. Andigenum groups Phureja and Stenotonum, diploid hybrids of these, and advanced tetraploid breeding lines. The wild accessions represented tuber-bearing Solanum species, implicated in potato domestication. Sensory data highlighted 20 advanced breeding lines that were relatively weak in potato flavour, sweetness and umami before storage, but increased to the intensities of the landrace and hybrids bred from them after storage. The data observed 39 metabolites which were significantly different between storage times (on average ≥3-fold higher) and associated with sweetness, umami, bitterness and sourness tastes. A comparison to potatoes with high potato flavour emphasised that lower levels of specific metabolites associated with sweetness (e.g. glucose, fructose, glycine and serine), sourness (oxalic, ascorbic and citric acid) and umami (aspartic acid) were related to a higher rating for potato flavour. This corroborates the hypothesis, that perception of sensory traits is based on a complex metabolic composition in potato tubers. These data also indicate that metabolomic analysis can play an important role in augmenting future breeding programmes considering consumer traits. • Wild potatoes scored highest for acidity/bitterness, but the lowest for potato flavour. • Andean landraces had high scores for potato flavour before and after storage. • 20 advanced breeding lines showed improved flavour after storage. • 42 metabolites were associated with changes in sensory evaluation. • Lower levels of specific metabolites were correlated with a higher potato flavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banana (Musa spp.) plants produce many health promoting compounds in leaf, peel and pulp. For a robust metabolic analysis of these tissues, leaf at five developmental stages were compared to assess suitable sampling practices. Results confirmed that the common sampling practise of leaf 3 is applicable for metabolic comparisons. The developed work flow was applied to analyse the metabolite diversity present in 18 different Musa varieties, providing baseline levels of metabolites in leaf, peel and pulp tissue. Correlation analysis was then used to ascertain whether similar trends can be detected in the three plant tissues of the diversity panel. The genome group displayed a dominant role in the composition of the metabolome in all three tissues. This led to the conclusion that a correlation between tissues was only possible within a genome group as the different parental backgrounds caused too great a variation in the metabolomes. It also suggests the metabolome could be used to monitor the interaction/hybridisation of genomes during breeding programmes. Image 1 • Leaf three is most representative of varietal metabolic composition. • Score plots of leaf, peel and pulp showed common varietal groupings. • Main differences between banana pulps included TCA cycle intermediates and sugars. • Metabolite composition of pulp showed no correlation to consumption type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broad diversity of phenotypes are available within the cassava germplasm collections. The phenotypes include improved nutritional, starch or culinary root quality as well as abiotic and biotic resistance properties. Some of these traits can be found naturally occurring in cassava landraces, whereas others are the result of targeted breeding efforts. For future breeding programmes it is important to know the underlying mechanisms of these desirable traits. Metabolomics can assist in the elucidation of these mechanisms by measuring the end products of the cellular processes conferring the traits of interest. The present study focused on the comparison of two or more variants of the same trait such as high and low culinary quality or resistance and susceptibility to thrips. Overall, eight different traits were assessed. Results showed that amino acids and umami compounds were associated with superior culinary attributes and the phenylpropanoid superpathway plays an important role in pest resistance. Furthermore, the data highlighted a low chemodiversity in African cassavas and that the source-sink relation was still active at the harvest stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Wild, landrace and bred potato varieties show distinct metabolite profiles. • Group specific metabolite compositions are maintained upon cooking. • Bred native hybrids showed no significant change of Vitamin A precursors. • Accessions with distinct traits were identified for breeding purposes. Elucidating and improving the nutritional value of staple crops is an important focus in breeding programs. Hence, wild and cultivated potatoes have been metabolite profiled to assess metabolic plasticity present in potato tubers and changes that occur in these after cooking. The present data highlighted metabolic similarities of certain wild species to breeding lines, indicating preference during domestication. In the case of potato, the cooking process has to be taken into consideration for the assessment of nutritional quality. The degree of nutritional change during cooking depends on several factors including cooking method, stability of metabolites with nutritional properties and chemotype of the varietal matrix. The differences between raw and boiled tubers were similar within each germplasm group. No notable distinctions of total phenolic levels could be observed within germplasm groups, whereas total carotenoids and glycoalkaloids were significantly decreased. Genotypes/cultivars with notable changes upon cooking distinguished them within their genotype group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]