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Selection for Some Olive Oil Quality Components Through the Analysis of Fruit Flesh
Author(s) -
Velasco Leonardo,
FernándezCuesta Álvaro,
De la Rosa Raúl,
Victoria RuizMéndez M.,
León Lorenzo
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/s11746-014-2523-1
Subject(s) - flesh , squalene , food science , linoleic acid , oleic acid , biology , palmitic acid , olive oil , fatty acid , selection (genetic algorithm) , botany , horticulture , biochemistry , artificial intelligence , computer science
Selection for oil quality is commonly conducted at the latest stages of olive breeding programs, as oil quality traits are measured in extracted oils. At the initial stages of breeding, the number of genotypes is high and fruit production is low, which makes it difficult to conduct oil extraction. The objective of this research was to evaluate the feasibility of conducting selection for some important oil quality traits in olive by analyzing fruit flesh instead of extracted oils. Fatty acids, tocopherols, phytosterols, and squalene were measured in fruit flesh and extracted oils from 22 individual olive trees showing variability for oil quality traits. Correlation coefficients between analyses conducted on fruit flesh and extracted oils were r = 0.98 for the main fatty acids palmitic, oleic, and linoleic acid, r = 0.96 for tocopherol content, r = 0.89 for phytosterol content, r = 0.97 for squalene content, and r = 0.91 and 0.94 for the concentrations of the two main sterols β‐sitosterol and Δ 5 ‐avenasterol, respectively. The results revealed that selection for the mentioned oil quality traits can be efficiently conducted through the analysis of fruit flesh instead of extracted oil, which facilitates selection on larger numbers of genotypes at the initial stages of olive breeding programs.