•Maturity at harvest and after storage plus genotype impact melon fruit flavor.•Volatiles increased in storage for all melon genotypes with esters being dominant.•Short shelf-life melons associated ...with esters, sulphur compounds and a terpenoid.•Long shelf-life melons related with green/grassy aroma/flavor, firmness, aldehydes.
Flavor is a key attribute defining melon fruit quality and driving consumer preferences. We characterized and compared fruit ripening patterns (ethylene, respiration), physicochemical properties (rind/flesh color, firmness, soluble solids, acidity), aroma volatiles, and flavor-related sensory attributes in seven melon genotypes differing in shelf life capacity. Fruits were evaluated at optimal maturity and after storage for six days at 5 °C plus one day at room temperature. Total volatile content increased after storage in all genotypes, with esters being dominant. Shorter shelf-life genotypes, displaying a sharper climacteric phase, correlated with fruity/floral/sweet flavor-related descriptors, and with esters, sulfur-containing compounds and a terpenoid. Longer shelf-life types were associated with firmness, green and grassy aroma/flavor and aldehydes. Multivariate regression identified key volatiles that predict flavor sensory perception, which could accelerate breeding of longer shelf-life melons with improved flavor characteristics.
•Sensory panelists detected differences in texture among 10 melon genotypes.•Instrumental assessments detected differences in texture among 10 melon genotypes.•Instrumental parameters can predict ...texture sensory attributes in melon genotypes.•Breeding programs targeting texture may be accelerated by instrumental methods.
Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is a commercially important horticultural crop worldwide that exhibits extensive phenotypic and genetic variation. Texture is one of the key attributes defining melon fruit quality and overall consumer preference. The aim of this research was two-fold: first, to characterize and compare differences in fruit sensory and instrumental textural properties among a diverse panel of melon fruit genotypes (to determine if each methodology is capable of discriminating among genotypes independently); and secondly, to assess the correlations between texture-related sensory attributes and instrumental parameters. During two production seasons, fruit from 10 melon genotypes with diverse textural characteristics were harvested at optimal commercial maturity and stored for six days at 5 °C plus one day at room temperature, then analyzed for textural instrumental and sensory properties. Both methodologies detected significant and reproducible differences in texture among the assayed melon genotypes. Furthermore, texture-related sensory attributes of firmness, crunchiness, and juiciness significantly correlated with several parameters obtained through the instrumental assessment of texture by using different probes of the texture analyzer instrument, independently. Our results indicate that texture-related attributes and overall fruit quality improvement could be accelerated significantly by the application of instrumental measurements to select for phenotypes that highly associate with consumer perception, decreasing costs and time investments.
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