Internal Fruit Quality Is Maintained in Eggplant under Mild Long-Term Salt Treatment

Modern Solanum melongena varieties have been developed to improve the content of phenolics, sugars, and nutritionally relevant minerals in fruit. However, fruit composition might be altered due to abiotic stresses like salinity. Physiological and fruit quality traits were evaluated in four eggplant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Agriculture (Basel) 2024-06, Vol.14 (6), p.871
Main Authors: Ortega-Albero, Neus, Adalid-Martínez, Ana María, Castell-Zeising, Vicente, Raigón, María Dolores, Rodríguez-Burruezo, Adrián, Fita, Ana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acids
Agricultural production
chlorogenic acid
Composition
Food quality
Fruit
Fruits
Genotype & phenotype
Genotypes
Glucose tolerance
Irrigation
Metabolites
Minerals
Phenolic compounds
Phenols
Physiology
Plant growth
Salinity
Salinity effects
Salinity tolerance
Salt
salt stress
Salt tolerance
Seeds
Sodium chloride
Software
Solanum melongena
Sugar
sugars
Water
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Summary:Modern Solanum melongena varieties have been developed to improve the content of phenolics, sugars, and nutritionally relevant minerals in fruit. However, fruit composition might be altered due to abiotic stresses like salinity. Physiological and fruit quality traits were evaluated in four eggplant landraces under usual irrigation and moderately salty irrigation conditions (80 mM NaCl). Growing parameters measured included root length, leaf surface, and fresh weight, while fruit composition traits included sugars, phenolics, and mineral content determinations. Few differences were observed for agronomic traits, probably due to the mild tolerance of eggplant to salinity. Some varieties showed signs of salt tolerance like an increase in primary root length to overcome salt stress. Glucose was the metabolite more affected by the salt treatment in the fruit, while phenolic compounds and other metabolites studied were not altered. Significant differences were observed in the main minerals Na, K, Ca, P, and Mg, both between genotypes and treatments. Although salinity produced changes in some physiological and developmental traits, the composition of the fruit was not significantly modified for the accessions tested. Mineral, sugar, and phenolic contents were not particularly altered in unripe fruits, indicating tolerance of eggplant varieties to salinity in terms of fruit quality.
ISSN:2077-0472
2077-0472
DOI:10.3390/agriculture14060871