Group leader: Amparo Monfort

Research project:

Elucidating the Green Leave aroma heritance in berries
The volatile composition of fruits has been extensively studied and comprises esters, aldehydes, ketones, furanones, alcohols and terpenoids families. Esters, which have been described as the majority compounds are the characteristic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that define berry volatiles. Among them, specific compounds have been reported as key aroma compounds for strawberry fruit, providing green and sweet fruity notes. Some VOCs are known to have a deterrent activity against insects as spotted wing drosophila (SWD), a worldwide important pest of soft-skinned fruits such as strawberries, cherries or raspberries, among others. Strawberry is a fruit with added economic value and SWD can impact negatively in production. Consumers consider flavour, as taste and aroma sum, as the greatest indicator of the quality of strawberry. The wild strawberry has a different volatile composition than cultivated strawberry. Some VOCs have been reported providing green leaf fresh aroma that decreases with ripeness. The main aim of this project is to identify genomic regions responsible for Green Leave Volatiles aroma content, including molecules and its variations of wild strawberry, cultivated strawberry and other berries. To address this goal, volatile characterization by GC-MS of a diploid strawberry ILs collection will permit defining genomic intervals linked to variation of the compounds as GLV, or others in cultivated strawberry. The analyses of VOCs by GC-MS in different stages of fruit ripening, leaves and other parts of plants can give the necessary information to understand the GLV accumulation in berries and the GLV release in leaves and cut leaves of plants.Research project:

Key publication

Pol Rey-Serra, Mourad Mnejja and Amparo Monfort (AC). 2022 Inheritance of esters and other volatile compounds responsible for the fruity aroma in strawberry. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE, 12 August 2022, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.959155.

Potential collaborations with other research groups

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