Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Consumer-Assisted Selection: Making New Plants That Look, Smell & Taste Better
Kevin M. FoltaProfessor and Chair, Horticultural Sciences Department
University of Florida
Production Technologies• Supply chain managements shapes breeding targets
• Production• Shipping & handling• Packaging & processing• Point of purchase
Where are we now?• Our flowers, fruits and vegetables have
changed a lot
– PRODUCTION has changed– Product ALWAYS available– Product is NOT always good– Food products are diverse– Food is inexpensive
• We have a serious obesity problem– We are not vitamin deficient…
Key Words for US HorticultureHEALTHYSAFETYSUSTAINABLE/LOCALCONSUMER PREFERENCEVALUE ADDED
What do consumers experience?
SightTouchSmell
SightTouchSmell
Taste - memory
What do breeders experience?
Who are the consumers?
Who are the breeders?
A SERIOUS Disconnect
• Most flowers, fruits and vegetables are bought by women and they influence the purchasing decisions on much of the rest
• Most plant breeders and many industry decision makers are men
A BIG Question
• How do we find out what consumers want?– Most people really don’t know…– It is very hard to measure emotion– It is even harder to measure how much more
people will pay if stimulated
Another BIG Question
• How do we decide goals for new crop development?– Usually based on yield characters (retrospect)– Easy to measure and predict– It is difficult to measure the pleasure and
value of flavor and fragrance
Dr. Dave Clark – PIC DirectorA breeder rethinking priorities!
UF/IFAS-PIC
BASIC ScienceInputs
APPLIED ScienceOutputs
Sensory Analysis
Plant Genetics
Plant Production
Food Science
PostharvestShipping & Handling
New Product Development
Business & Marketing
New Variety Development
Institutional & CorporatePartnerships
Plant Supply Chain
Some VIPs
Appealing to Consumers’ Senses• Psychophysics – QUANTIFIES THE RELATIONSHIP
between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they effect (behavior & emotions)
Like
Buy
Appealing to Consumers’ Senses
• Physical stimuli in plants – controlled by environment and genetic traits that are measured empirically– Sight: pigments (anthocyanins, carotenoids etc.)– Taste & Smell: sugars, acids, volatiles– Feel: physical features (trichomes, cuticles etc.)
min10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
pA
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
FID1 A, (C:\DOCUME~1\UCNTCME1\TACMRF~1\NOV14\031F2001.D)
6.0
38 6
.131
6.6
38 6
.880
7.4
63
10.
218
10.
623
10.
931
11.
000
12.
296
12.
387
13.
098
13.
501
17.
371
- be
nzal
dehy
de
18.
681
19.
975
- be
nzyl
alc
ohol
20.
425
- p
heny
lace
tald
ehyd
e
21.
239
- be
nzyl
ace
tate
22.
357
- m
ethy
l ben
zoat
e
22.
952
- 2-
phen
yl e
than
ol
25.
911
- m
ethy
lsal
icyl
ate
27.
184
27.
337
- ph
enet
hyl a
ceta
te 2
7.63
8
28.
969
- no
nyl a
ceta
te (I
S)
30.
426
30.
918
- eu
geno
l
31.
736
31.
929
32.
239
32.
458
- a-
iono
ne
33.
286
33.
681
- is
oeug
enol
34.
936
35.
131
- B
-iono
ne
41.
143
42.
244
- be
nzyl
ben
zoat
e
44.
576
- ph
enet
hyl b
enzo
ate
Physical fruit attributes C1 Fruit is roundC2 A golden-orange colored fruitC3 Fruit is juicyC4 Fruit has pinkish colored fleshC5 Fruit is firmC6 Plant yields a round, slightly ribbed fruitC7 Fruit has a plum-shapeC8 Produces striped fruitC9 Fruit has a deep red color
5 Inch Garden Starter Tomato Plant IdeaMap® study – Colquhoun & Moskowitz
Fruit Flavor A1 Plant produces a sweet fruitA2 Fruit has a full balanced flavorA3 A tart/acidic fruitA4 Fruit has a smoky sweetnessA5 Fruit is sweet with fruity complexityA6 Plant has fruit with a classic tomato flavorA7 Deep sweet fruit with a hint of tartnessA8 Mild sweet flavored fruitA9 Fruit has a tropical flavor
Physical plant attributes B1 Plant grows short and bushyB2 Plant bears for an extended periodB3 Produces many fruitB4 Potato-leaved foliageB5 Short harvest seasonB6 Bears fruit early in the seasonB7 Heat tolerant plantB8 Disease resistant plantB9 Plant grows tall and needs staking
Plant Branding D1 "Garden Gem"D2 "Big Boy"D3 "Brandywine"D4 "Sun Gold"D5 "Suwannee"D6 "Mortgage Lifter"D7 "Better Boy"D8 "Garden Treasure"D9 "Garden Charm"
Tomato Topline
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40
0.45
InV$$$
Coded Elements
Nor
mal
ized
Sca
le
sweetclassic flavor
many fruit
deep redearly
‘Garden Gem’
So what do people want in a garden tomato?• 300+ US consumers1. Sweet, classic tomato flavor – sensory 2. Prolific fruiting – psychological (gratification)3. Early season fruiting – psychological (gratification)4. Has deep red color – sensory 5. Name it ‘Garden Gem’• All of these traits are controlled genetically
Harry’s tomato experiment – The recipe for a great tasting tomato
Tieman, Bliss, McIntyre, Blandon-Ubeda, Bies, Osabasi, Rodiguez, van her Knaap, Taylor, Goulet, Mageroy, Snyder, Colquhoun, Moskowitz,
Clark, Sims, Bartoshuk & Klee (2012). Current Biology, 22, 1-5.
Harry Klee
Charlie Sims & Linda Bartoshuk
Tomato Flavor Tests• 79 heirloom tomato varieties tested• 68 tomato flavor constituents measured in each variety
– Sugars, acids, volatiles• 170 subjects (not all subjects tasted all varieties)
– Taste (e.g., sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami)– Flavor – Palatability
• Developed and validated statisticalmodels to explain the chemistry of liking
• Some volatiles correlated positively.• Some correlated negatively.• Some did not seem to matter.• “Recipe” for a better tomato:
– Pick the appropriate sugar level– Increase volatiles with positive correlations– Decrease volatiles with negative correlations
A surprising discovery in the tomato data:
Multiple regression shows that the volatiles in tomatoes make a significant contribution to sweetness independent of sugar.
Sweetness is much more than sugar in tomato
Sweetness is much more than sugar in strawberry too…
A new source of sweetness?
• Can we add the volatiles that induce sweet in citrus (and potentially other fruit) products to make them sweeter with less sugar?
chromosome number
corr
elati
on o
f SN
P to
trai
tCitric acid
Guiacol
Genome Wide Association Study of 160 tomato genomes
‘Garden Gem’1. Sweet classic tomato flavor2. Prolific fruiting 3. Early season fruiting 4. NEEDS deep red color – have
markers for crimson gene5. Versatile use
www.gardengemtomato.com($20 donation = seeds from 2 new varieties)
Consumer-assisted Selection
• A great tasting “commercial” tomato is still a challenge. But…• We have defined the target• We have identified most of the key genes • We have started moving them into elite germplasm • There are SNP associations with every compound that consumers find
desirable/undesirable
• It is now just a matter of putting the biochemical and genetic recipe together
• This integrated approach is applicable to any horticultural crop
‘Indigo Crisp’ Blueberry1. Large sweet berries2. Prolific early season fruiting 3. Berries POP when bitten 4. New uses for processing – crisp
texture in pasteurized yogurt
‘Sweet Sensation’ Strawberry1. Large sweet berries2. Prolific early season fruiting3. Excellent sugar/acid ratio 4. Lots of sweet volatiles5. First named strawberry in the US
Pre- / Post-harvest light treatments to maximize flavor, nutrition, and shelf life.
Thomas Colquhoun, Sofia Carvalho, Michael Schwieterman
What’s Next?
• Outcomes• If we make plants people like more…
– And if we grow them well…– And package and ship them properly…– And put them in the market properly…
• Will they buy more of them?• Will they eat more of them?• Will they be healthier?• How can this benefit the Florida/USA
farmer?
Opportunities - colleagues
• Dr. Julie Mennella – Monell Institute (Penn) sensory
• Dr. Lisa Feldman-Barrett – Northeastern University (Boston) – fMRI
• Can we assist with your research questions?
Opportunities• Coca-Cola Company• WalMart• Green Mountain/Keurig• Costa Plants• JR Simplot Co• NSF• NIFA• NIH• FDACS• Florida Tomato Committee• UF/IFAS & UFRF seed funds
More Information
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/pic/
[email protected]@kevinfoltawww.arabidopsisthaliana.com
www.talkingbiotechpodcast.com
