Next-Gen Approaches to Flavor-Related Metabolism

Abstract

Although flavor is an essential element for consumer acceptance of food, breeding programs have focused primarily on yield, leading to significant declines in flavor for many vegetables. The deterioration of flavor quality has concerned breeders; however, the complexity of this trait has hindered efforts to improve or even maintain it. Recently, the integration of flavor-associated metabolic profiling with other omics methodologies derived from big data has become a prominent trend in this research field. Here, we provide an overview of known metabolites contributing to flavor in the major vegetables as well as genetic analyses of the relevant metabolic pathways based on different approaches, especially multi-omics. We present examples demonstrating how omics analyses can help us to understand the accomplishments of historical flavor breeding practices and implement further improvements. The integration of genetics, cultivation, and postharvest practices with genome-scale data analyses will create enormous potential for further flavor quality improvements.

Keywords: flavor quality; metabolic pathway; multi-omics; secondary metabolism; volatiles.