RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Tomatoes are an important source of antioxidants (carotenoids, vitamin C, etc.) owing to their high level of consumption. There is great interest in developing cultivars with increased levels of lycopene, ß-carotene or L-ascorbic acid. There is necessary to survey new sources of variation. In this study, the potential of improvement for each character in tomato breeding programmes, in a single or joint approach, and the nature of genotype (G), environment (E) and G × E interaction effects in the expression of these characters were investigated. RESULTS: The content of lycopene, ß-carotene and ascorbic acid determined was very high in some phenotypes (up to 281, 35 and 346 mg kg(-1) respectively). The important differences in the three environments studied (with some stressing conditions in several situations) had a remarkable influence in the phenotypic expression of the functional characters evaluated. Nevertheless, the major contribution came from the genotypic effect along with a considerable G × E interaction. CONCLUSION: The joint accumulation of lycopene and ß-carotene has a high genetic component. It is possible to select elite genotypes with high content of both carotenoids in tomato breeding programmes but multi-environment trials are recommended. The improvement of ascorbic acid content is more difficult because the interference of uncontrolled factors mask the real genetic potential. Among the accessions evaluated, there are four accessions with an amazing genetic potential for functional properties that can be used as donor parents in tomato breeding programmes or for direct consumption in quality markets.
Assuntos
Ácido Ascórbico/metabolismo , Carotenoides/metabolismo , Produtos Agrícolas/genética , Frutas/metabolismo , Solanum lycopersicum/genética , Solanum lycopersicum/metabolismo , Estresse Fisiológico , Algoritmos , Quimera/genética , Quimera/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Quimera/metabolismo , Produtos Agrícolas/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Produtos Agrícolas/metabolismo , Fenômenos Ecológicos e Ambientais , Genes de Plantas , Genótipo , Hibridização Genética , Licopeno , Solanum lycopersicum/crescimento & desenvolvimento , Estações do Ano , Solanum/genética , Espanha , Estresse Fisiológico/genética , Luz Solar , beta Caroteno/metabolismoRESUMO
In this study, the major carotenoids (beta-carotene and lycopene) present in tomato fruits were analyzed by CEC with a methacrylate ester-based monolithic column. The effects of the porogenic solvent ratio, and the hydrophobicity of bulk monomer employed were examined on carotenoids separations. A fast separation of these analytes was achieved in less than 5.0 min in a mobile phase containing 35% THF, 30% ACN, 30% methanol, and 5% of a 5 mM Tris aqueous buffer, pH 8, with lauryl methacrylate-based monoliths. The CEC method was evaluated in terms of detection limit and reproducibility (retention time, area, and column preparation) with values below 1.6 microg/mL and 7.2%, respectively. The proposed procedure was successfully applied to the determination of both carotenoids in fruits of several tomato-related species and its usefulness to analyze large series of samples for nutritional quality screening trials in tomato breeding programs is demonstrated. To our knowledge, this is the first work that exploits the powerful and user-friendly monolithic technology for quality breeding and germplasm evaluation program purposes.
