Cantaloupe (Cucumis melo L.) fruits are known for their sweetness and an excellent dietary source of amino acids, carotenoids, and vitamin C. The levels of health promoting metabolities are influenced by crop management and growing locations. Understanding the accumulation of health promoting metabolites is critical for variety selection and improvement of melon breeding programs. Therefore, in the present study, we measured the variation in health promoting metabolites, including amino acids, carotenoids, vitamin C, and total soluble solids (TSS) in newly developed hybrids (TH-1, TH-5, TH-6, TH-9, TH-10, TH-11, TH-12, TH-13, TH-14) grown in four states (Texas, Arizona, California, and Indiana) across the United States. Results demonstrated that cantaloupe hybrids had significant variations in metabolite levels. The TSS levels varied among the same hybrid grown in different locations. For example, TSS levels were high in TH-5 grown in Arizona (12.1 °Brix), followed by California (11.6 °Brix), and Texas (11.2 °Brix). Similarly, TH-9 had higher TSS in Texas (11.2 °Brix) and Arizona (10.9 °Brix) compared to other locations. It was observed that the cantaloupe hybrids had higher levels of amino acids especially γ-aminobutyric acid and glutamine compared to other amino acids. In relation to carotenoids, β-carotene was present in high concentrations in all the hybrids analyzed. Lower concentration of ζ-carotene, phytoene, phytofluene and lycopene isomers were also observed. Results of multivariate (principal component and hierarchical cluster) analyses revealed the interactive effect of cantaloupe hybrids and growing locations. The present results suggest that growing locations paly a significant role on the accumulation of metabolites in cantaloupe hybrids and could provide useful information for future breeding programs.

A metabolomics profiling of cantaloupe hybrids grown in various locations in the United States

ACS Fall 2021

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