Unraveling varietal differences and nutraceutical potentials of Manjari Medika and its parents: an untargeted metabolomics study

The study presents a robust, reliable, and precise classification model that accurately compares the metabolite composition of an Indian grape hybrid named Manjari Medika (MM) to its parental lines, Pusa Navrang (PN) and Flame Seedless (FS). The objective was to evaluate the impact of PN and FS on the MM metabolome, and investigate the nutraceutical potential of these three grape varieties. By employing a liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry based untargeted approach, the methanolic extracts of these grapes were screened. The metabolites were identified by matching with globally available databases and were further subjected to multivariate statistical analysis. The study identified 427 metabolites, out of which 410 compounds were common across all three varieties. The MM cultivar revealed 73 distinct compounds. The chemoinformatics analysis identified 21 metabolites as distinguishing biomarkers. In MM, the elevated relative abundance of the potentially bioactive metabolites suggests its suitability as a potential functional food. From the statistical analysis, it is hypothesized that the anthocyanin profile and drought tolerance may be influenced by PN, while FS could potentially contribute to enhanced shelf life. This study could help grape breeders map inheritance pattern of bioactive compounds and identify the best parents and progenies to create robust varieties with rich metabolite profiles.