Exploring the metabolic changes in sweet potato during postharvest storage using a widely targeted metabolomics approach
Lei Ren, Tingting Zhang, Haixia Wu, Yuxin Ge, Zhao Xuehong, Xiaodie Shen, Wuyu Zhou, Tianlong Wang, Yungang Zhang, Daifu Ma, Aimin Wang
Abstract
Sweet potato is a globally important tuber crop valued for its high nutritional value. Following harvesting, the tubers are typically stored for up to several months, but little is known about the changes in global metabolites during this period. Here, a widely targeted metabolomics approach was used to analyze the metabolic changes in three sweet potato cultivars with different flesh colors during postharvest storage. A total of 496 metabolites were characterized. The metabolite profiles of the three cultivars before and after storage were compared, and the results indicated that the metabolic profiles were cultivar-specific. Most metabolites tended to decrease during storage, indicating that catabolism was the major metabolic mode under the tested storage conditions. Differential metabolite analysis indicated that the nutritional qualities did not change significantly, while some bioactive substances increased dramatically. This study provides new insights into the changes in the metabolite profiles of sweet potato during postharvest storage. Practical applications The postharvest storage of fresh sweet potato presents a bottleneck for both fresh and processed sweet potato products. Our study comprehensively assessed the metabolite profiles of sweet potato during storage, which is helpful for determining the optimum storage and processing durations to reach specific fresh and other processed product requirements.