Volatilome: Integrative Approaches for Improving Fruit Aroma, Flavor, and Sensor

Flavor and quality are among the most decisive traits determining consumer acceptance and market value of horticultural crops, yet they remain among the most physiologically complex to improve through breeding and cultivation. Taste, aroma, texture, and nutritional value arise from dynamic interactions between genetic architecture and metabolic networks operating from the gene to the whole-crop level, and understanding these interactions across scales is central to advancing product quality at harvest and during postharvest storage. This Research Topic, hosted within the Crop and Product Physiology section, invites contributions that advance mechanistic understanding of how genes, pathways, and metabolites regulate sensory and quality traits in fruits and other horticultural products, with the goal of informing sustainable breeding and cultivation strategies.We welcome studies that integrate genomic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, and volatilomic approaches to uncover the physiological regulation of flavor-related traits, provided they move beyond descriptive profiling to explain the underlying biological processes. This includes functional characterization of genes and pathways governing sugar and acid metabolism, volatile organic compound biosynthesis, phenolic and pigment accumulation, and textural development, as well as how these pathways are regulated during fruit development, ripening, and postharvest storage.The Research Topic is particularly interested in physiological studies examining how environmental factors and cultivation techniques shape the metabolic pathways underlying flavor and quality outcomes. This includes genotype-by-environment interactions, the physiological effects of climate and abiotic stress on volatile and metabolite accumulation, and strategies to regulate or preserve flavor during storage and transport. Work connecting physiological mechanisms to applied breeding — such as marker-assisted selection, genomic selection, or multi-omics integration — is also welcome, provided it contributes biological insight rather than descriptive trait association alone.Methodologically, we encourage submissions using GC-MS and LC-MS-based metabolite profiling, transcriptomic and genome-wide association studies (GWAS), CRISPR-based or other functional validation of candidate genes, and sensory evaluation linked to biochemical mechanisms. In line with the section’s requirements, quantitative and omics analyses should include a minimum of three biological replicates, and studies using transgenic plants or mutants should be based on at least two independent alleles displaying a common, stable phenotype. Purely descriptive datasets of transcripts, proteins, or metabolites, or gene-family studies limited to basic phylogenetics and cursory functional attribution, fall outside the section’s scope unless expanded to provide genuine physiological insight.We welcome submissions on themes including, but not limited to:- Physiological regulation of genes and pathways controlling flavor, aroma, and quality traits- Mechanistic genomic, transcriptomic, and multi-omics studies of fruit development and ripening- Functional metabolomic and volatilomic studies linking metabolite biosynthesis to sensory outcomes- Regulation of terpenoid, ester, phenolic, and other flavor-related metabolite pathways- Genotype-by-environment interactions affecting flavor and nutritional quality- Effects of cultivation techniques, climate, and abiotic stress on flavor-related physiology- Postharvest physiological regulation of flavor, texture, and quality during storage and transport- Marker-assisted and genomic selection strategies grounded in physiological mechanisms- CRISPR-based or other functional validation of flavor-related genes across multiple alleles- Comparative physiological studies across species, cultivars, or wild relatives- Review and synthesis articles on the physiological basis of flavor and quality regulation Topic editors: Jun Song, Randolph Beaudry Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84997/volatilome-integrative-approaches-for-improving-fruit-aroma-flavor-and-sensor