Breeding for pepper fruit quality: a genitical metabolomics approach

 

A diverse collection of 32 pepper accessions was analysed for variation in health-related metabolites, such as carotenoids, capsaicinoids, flavonoids and vitamins C and E. For each of the metabolites analysed, there was a lot of variation among the accessions and it was possible to identify accessions with high amounts of specific metabolites. While all accessions contained high levels of vitamin C, accession C. chinenseAC2212 was found to be an excellent source of vitamin E, whereas C. annuumLong Sweet accumulated high levels of the flavonoid quercetin. A genetical metabolomics approach was used to study the genetic basis of metabolic traits in a segregating F2 population based on a cross between two contrasting pepper genotypes. This led to the identification of several metabolites QTL hotspots. The genetic basis for the accumulation of several flavonoids in pepper fruit was further investigated, by combining metabolic, gene expression and candidate gene-based marker data. This provided valuable insight into the key genes important for flavonoid accumulation in pepper fruit. The results of this study will help breeders to assist future breeding programs aimed at optimizing the levels of nutritional compounds in pepper fruit.