S17 - Session O1 - New insights into phenotypic plasticity for quality related criteria in carrot.

Authors: Wilfried Chevalier *, Didier Peltier, Emmanuel Geoffriau

There is an increasing demand from society about nutritional and sensorial quality of fruits and vegetables. Specialized metabolites are a priority target to improve the quality of plant products due to their nutritional and sensory attributes. Among vegetables, carrot is distinguished by its ability to accumulate a wide range of metabolites in root, including polyacetylenes, carotenoids and sugars. Thus, carrot may be considered as a root plant model to better understand the involvement of biochemical compounds in vegetable quality. Therefore, ensuring a guaranteed content of these metabolites, considering their respective sensory and nutritional attributes, is crucial to achieve an optimal quality in carrot crops. Nevertheless, a substantial phenotypic variability lies for these compounds. The purpose of this work is to use an integrative approach including different varieties and multi-environment trials to grasp the respective influence of different factors in the accumulation of compounds of interest. By focusing on biochemical compounds with organoleptic attributes and metabolites already known for their nutritional properties, this study aims to create a typology and thus identify levers to ensure a guaranteed content of metabolites of interest in carrot crops. Beyond a better appreciation of phenotypic plasticity levels obtained by variation analyses, the identification of leading environmental factors related to key metabolites content was done using rPLS models. A sequential approach was used considering the whole crop cycle and the different developmental stages of carrot. This work paves the way for a better mastering of carrot quality and recommendations for breeders and growers will be particularly presented.