Floral volatile chemical diversity in Hedychium F1 hybrid population

Floral scent profiles play crucial role in the ornamental values of cut flowers, and efficient floral scent profiling acquisition is a critical premise for quality assessment and genetic improvement of fragrant cut flowers. Despite the fact that cross breeding is an effective method for improving the fragrance of cut flowers, less focus has been paid on floral scent evaluation in cross populations due to the complexity of fragrance phenotype detection. In the current study, floral scent profile of Hedychium coronarium 'ZS', H. 'Jin' and their 110F1 hybrid cultivars were evaluated. Headspace solid phase microextraction- gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) identified 33 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including 15 monoterpenoids, 7 sesquiterpenoids, 9 phenylpropanoids, 1 fatty acid derivative, and 1 other, while proton transfer reaction-time of flight-mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS) detected 68 masses. Correlation analysis indicated that beta-myrcene, alpha-terpinene, eucalyptol, (E)beta-ocimene, cyclopentene, 3-isopropenyl-5, 5-, allo-ocimene, indole, isoamyl benzoate, (E)-beta-famesene, m/z 74.069 and m/z 118.069 played an important role in sensory concentration of Hedychium flowers fragrance. Furthermore, partial least squares (PLS) analysis of VOCs and masses revealed that 44 masses were highly sensitive to 21 VOCs (8 monoterpenoids, 6 sesquiterpenoids, 5 benzenoids/phenylpropanoids, 1 fatty acid derivative, and indole). Overall, the data showed that two mass spectrometric methodologies were highly complementary, revealing a novel and dynamic perspective on volatile complex diversity of Hedychium F1 hybrid population cut flowers.