Screening Organic Acid Contents of Tomato Landraces Collected From Aegean-Mediterranean Region of Anatolia

Abstract

Tomato landraces can serve as valuable sources for breeding new cultivars aimed at enhancing fruit quality in terms of organic acids. Nineteen tomato landraces spread along the Mediterranean coasts of Anatolia were evaluated to determine their basic internal quality parameters and organic acid composition. The parameters assessed included fruit weight, diameter, length, pH, titrable acidity (TA %), soluble solid content (SSC%), SSC/TA ratio, and organic acids, such as oxalic (OA), tartaric (TarA), malic (MA), malonic (MalA), lactic (LA), acetic (AA), citric (CA), and ascorbic acids (AscA). Significant diversity was observed among the different landraces concerning these traits. Citric acid was found to be the most abundant organic acid within the landraces. Notably, the highest and lowest values for CA were recorded in Ege 8 (105.73 mg g-1) and TR62707 (31.10 mg g-1), respectively, making them promising sources for future breeding programs. Ascorbic acid (AscA) exhibited the lowest content among all the organic acids, ranging from 0.06 to 0.12 mg.g-1 (equivalent to 64-116 µg.g-1). Moreover, the landrace TR49646 displayed the highest malic acid content (8.23 mg g-1), making it a potential source for obtaining high malic acid content. Conversely, Ege 6 showed the lowest malic acid content (5.11 mg g-1). For health purposes, the landrace TR63233 was identified as having the lowest oxalic acid content. Multidimensional scale analysis further confirmed the potential candidates identified by the ANOVA and one-way ANOM tests. The results revealed a considerable diversity among the evaluated landraces, and the identified traits could be instrumental in selecting and breeding new cultivars with improved characteristics.