Editorial: Bioactive Compounds Biosynthesis and Metabolism in Fruit and Vegetables

Abstract

Fruit and vegetables are considered to be among the most important sources of bioactive compounds with proven beneficial effect on human diet. Tomato has been evolved as a model crop to study both fruit ripening pattern as well as for understanding how different environmental and agricultural factors can enhance the accumulation of bioactive compounds. The concentration of bioactive compounds is highly dependent on the crop species, cultivar/genotype, agronomic management, preharvest environmental conditions, and postharvest management practices (Toscano et al.). Bioactive compounds in fruit and vegetables are of consumer interest for their potential benefit to the health, especially in counteracting several diseases related to aging and stress. However, the bioactive molecules also have preservation properties that extend the shelf life of the produce. Postharvest technologies and storage conditions can reduce the degradation of bioactive compounds and some industrial operation can even promote their accumulation.

The systematic screening of key bioactive compounds with high content in a wide range of germplasm and the restoration of key genes and gene clusters from wild species and/or landraces both are important for reducing the loss of agro-biodiversity and the creation of a “gene pool” that can be exploited in future breeding programs toward the release of new cultivars with added nutraceutical value (Manganaris et al., 2018). Furthermore, the understanding how the accumulation of bioactive compounds can be enhanced or preserved is crucial for improvement of crop and product quality (Toscano et al.). The availability of advanced molecular tools allows fast and accurate transcriptome profiling that can help in the identification of the main gene clusters that are activated or repressed under different conditions. Such information coupled with the big data from metabolomics studies will be useful both for preharvest and postharvest management of produce with high nutritional value.