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Quantitative comparison of three main metabolites in leaves of Coffea accessions by UPLC-MS/MS

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Abstract

The wild diversity of the Coffea genus is large, which is valuable for coffee plant breeding programs intended to obtain higher sensory quality varieties; but a biochemical characterization of accessions, already available in coffee germplasm banks, is still needed. In this work, a quantitative determination of caffeine, trigonelline and 5-caffeoylquinic acid (5-CQA), in coffee leaves of 80 different Coffea spp. accessions from the Coffee Germplasm Bank located in Huatusco, Veracruz, Mexico was done. These metabolic variables might be useful as quality-related selection markers in future coffee breeding programs. Fresh coffee leaves from each accession were processed and metabolites determined by UPLC-MS/MS analyses. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and Analysis of Variance (AOV) revealed that levels of caffeine and trigonelline in leaves significantly varied among accessions, from 0.00 to 2.04% (w/w) and from 0.42 to 1.82% (w/w), respectively. While 5-CQA ranged from 0.00 to 0.66%. In C. liberica no caffeine was detected, demonstrating that coffee leaves have the potential to be used in the genetic profiling of Coffea spp. These results could be useful in formulating a proposal for intraspecific crosses in C. arabica, for the generation of F1 hybrids with good cup quality attributes, while in C. canephora they could be helpful for enhancing sensory quality traits of Robusta coffees.

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Availability of data and material

Dataset is available from Mendeley at https://dx.doi.org/10.17632/9hjtpksb9v.1 (under embargo until July 10, 2020 at 12:00 am UTC).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Sectorial Fund SAGARPA-CONACYT [Grant number 2016-01-277838].

Funding

This work was supported by the Sectorial Fund SAGARPA-CONACYT [grant number 2016-01-277838].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Montecillo, Km 36.5 Carretera México-Texcoco, 56230, Texcoco, Estado de México, México

    J. L. Spinoso-Castillo, V. H. Aguilar-Rincón, T. Corona-Torres & G. García-de los Santos

  2. Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Centro Regional Universitario Oriente, Km 6.5 Carretera Huatusco-Xalapa, 94100, Huatusco, Veracruz, México

    E. Escamilla-Prado

  3. Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Córdoba, Km 348 Carretera Federal Córdoba-Veracruz, 94946, Amatlán de los Reyes, Veracruz, México

    V. Morales-Ramos

Authors
  1. J. L. Spinoso-Castillo
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  2. E. Escamilla-Prado
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  3. V. H. Aguilar-Rincón
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  4. T. Corona-Torres
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  5. G. García-de los Santos
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  6. V. Morales-Ramos
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [JLSC], [EEP], [VHAR], [TCT] and [GGS]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [JLSC] and [VMR]. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to V. Morales-Ramos.

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Spinoso-Castillo, J.L., Escamilla-Prado, E., Aguilar-Rincón, V.H. et al. Quantitative comparison of three main metabolites in leaves of Coffea accessions by UPLC-MS/MS. Eur Food Res Technol 247, 375–384 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-020-03631-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-020-03631-8

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