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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Byron, Georgia » Fruit and Tree Nut Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #326944
Title: Comparison of fruit characters and volatile components in peach-to-nectarine mutants

Author
item Chen, Chunxian
item Bai, Jinhe
item OKIE, WILLIAM - Retired ARS Employee
item Plotto, Anne

Submitted to: Euphytica
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/17/2016
Publication Date: 1/30/2016
Citation: Chen, C., Bai, J., Okie, W.R., Plotto, A. 2016. Comparison of fruit characters and volatile components in peach-to-nectarine mutants. Euphytica. 209(2):409-418.

Interpretive Summary: Spontaneous mutants in peach and other fruit tree crops are a valuable source for incremental improvement of cultivars in some important traits and for comparative genetic studies of those traits, such as skin blush, flesh colors, maturity, and acidity. Peach-to-nectarine mutants showed broad pleiotropic effects on fruit size, taste, and aroma, in addition to hairlessness. Two peach-to-nectarine mutants were independently found from the same peach cultivar, “Flameprince’, and used in the comparison of 9 fruit attributes and 27 volatiles, including appearance, size, weight, soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), the SSC/TA ratio, and volatiles. Compared to ‘Flameprince’, the two mutants were significantly lighter and smaller, but higher in SSC, TA, and the SSC/TA ratio. The 27 volatiles varied among the cultivars and harvest dates, in terms of total abundance and detection rate, which could be roughly clustered into six subgroups. Hexanol was the only volatile undetected in the peach, but detected in the three nectarines. These results facilitate further understanding and utilization of those spontaneous mutants.

Technical Abstract: In this study, we compared nine fruit attributes and 27 detected volatiles in the peach progenitor, ‘Flameprince’ (FPP), its two independently discovered peach-to-nectarine mutants (HFN and PFN), and a selected nectarine hybrid (SLN). HFN and PFN differed from FPP in fruit size and taste, but shared high similarities in fruit blush coverage and pattern, pit shape, and flesh and pit color. Compared to FPP, the two mutants were significantly lighter and smaller, but higher in soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), and the SSC/TA ratio. The 27 volatiles varied among the cultivars and harvest dates, in terms of total abundance and detection rate, which could be roughly clustered into six subgroups. Subgroup 1 included five volatiles and two fruit attributes that were low on Aug 6 but dramatically increased on Aug 13. Subgroup 2 had a similar tendency to subgroup 1 but one of the cultivars was an exception. Subgroup 3 included those that had the opposite tendency to subgroup 1 or 2. Volatiles in the three subgroups appeared closely associated with the ripening process. Fruit volatiles and attributes in the other three subgroups generally were inconsistent among the four cultivars on the two dates. Hexanol was the only volatile undetected in the peach, but detected in the three nectarines. Differences in broad pleiotropic effects among these mutants, potential utilization of volatiles, and genomic exploration are discussed.