Application of metabolomics to postharvest science of fresh crops.

Abstract With more than 400 000 plant and 1 000 000 estimated metabolites, metabolomics is a promising tool that revealed its efficiency to study the complete set of small naturally present or stresses-elicited metabolites. In its recent progress, metabolomics led to a comprehensive and global analysis of metabolites and metabolic pathways in living tissues. Therefore, this approach is being further used to study the different postharvest stages of fresh crops, and building novel sets of data on the metabolic transition from immature, ripe and senescent fruit, as well as the effects of the different stresses affecting the fresh crop tissues during the handling, minimal processing and storage. Changes in primary and secondary pathways of sugars, organic acids, and, phenolic compounds, ethylene synthesis and fruit texture associated with physiological diseases, disorders and postharvest treatments for preservation and shelf-life extension are helping to track the specific related metabolites. In addition, broader use of metabolomics will speed the discovery of novel gene functions in primary and secondary metabolism and will provide comprehensive data sets necessary to model metabolic networks related to postharvest physiology and biochemistry of fresh crops. The data collected are crucial in setting the appropriate postharvest conditions by diverting the metabolism towards the desired pathways, or slowing down the undesired pathways, leading to efficient and affordable methods to reduce losses and extend the shelf-life of fresh crops. In this review, we aim to give a comprehensive view on the recent advances and applications of metabolomics to postharvest science in order to understand crop deterioration, and therefore, developing or improving existing techniques to extend shelf-life and shelf-life.