Fruit quality profiling of blueberries for parental choice in breeding: aroma and texture at harvest and in postharvest

Parental choice is a key process in breeding, with particular regard to traits that are still poorly defined in blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) like flavour and texture, which are crucial in consumer acceptance. Breeding selection of these traits is generally based on non-analytical observations or assessed at a unique data point, which makes it extremely difficult to precisely address specific parameters to be ameliorated. The aim of this work was to obtain a high throughput quality profiling of blueberries, with regard to two complex and commercially important traits like aroma/flavour and texture, in order to unravel the variability present in the germplasm and use the information for breeding advancements, at the ripe fruit stage and during postharvest. We profiled 47 accessions among which different species of Vaccinium, southern, northern, lowbush, half-high blueberries and rabbiteyes were included. The analyses were carried out at harvest and after storage at 2°C for six weeks at normal atmosphere conditions, in order to monitor the dynamics of the different parameters of the traits for each genotype. The results of these coupled analyses, namely Texture Analysis and Proton Transfer Reaction Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS), are reported, with particular emphasis on developing explanatory knowledge toward an optimized parental choice for quality in blueberry breeding programs.