Abstract:
Given the potential health benefits (and adverse effects), of polyphenolic and steroidal glycoalkaloids in the
diet there is a growing interest in fully elucidating the genetic control of their levels in foodstuffs. Here we
carried out profiling of the specialized metabolites in the seeds of the Solanum pennellii introgression lines
identifying 338 putative metabolite quantitative trait loci (mQTL) for flavonoids, steroidal glycoalkaloids and
further specialized metabolites. Two putative mQTL for flavonols and one for steroidal glycoalkaloids were
cross-validated by evaluation of the metabolite content of recombinants harboring smaller introgression in
the corresponding QTL interval or by analysis of lines from an independently derived backcross inbred line
population. The steroidal glycoalkaloid mQTL was localized to a chromosomal region spanning 14 genes,
including a previously defined steroidal glycoalkaloid gene cluster. The flavonoid mQTL was further vali dated via the use of transient and stable overexpression of the Solyc12g098600 and Solyc12g096870 genes,
which encode seed-specific uridine 50
-diphosphate-glycosyltransferases. The results are discussed in the
context of our understanding of the accumulation of polyphenols and steroidal glycoalkaloids, and how this
knowledge may be incorporated into breeding strategies aimed at improving nutritional aspects of plants
as well as in fortifying them against abiotic stress.