Metabolic identity and variability of endive and escarole cultivars grown in Lazio and Puglia

Italy is the leader in the production of leafy crops such as endive and escarole (Cichorium endivia var. latifolium and crispum), which are consumed as fresh or minimally processed food. The valorisation of "made in Italy" produce was achieved by assessing cultivar identity and traceability and by enhancing the nutritive and economic value using genomic, transcriptomic and metabolomic approaches in collaboration with public and private enterprises. Within the CISIA project [1], the NMR spectroscopy was chosen to monitor the metabolic profiles of endive and escarole cultivars. Thirty hydro-soluble metabolites (amino acids, organic acids, sugars, polyols, phenols) from leaves of curly- and smooth- leafed endives (seven cultivars) were identified and quantified at transplanting and harvesting (22 and 86 days after sowing, respectively). Four cultivars ('Domari', 'Myrna', 'Flester', 'Confiance') were monitored in the Lazio region during two production cycles (2011-2012) and two of them ('Domari' and 'Flester') further tested in Puglia for a one year cycle (2013). The multivariate statistical analysis of NMR profiles pointed at the leaf developmental stages and environmental conditions as the major factors of metabolite variability, although cultivar-specific profiles could be assessed.