An insight into the impact of climate factors associated with altitude on wheat volatiles’ fingerprints at harvest using multivariate statistical analysis

Background: Climate changes associated to global warming are increasingly affecting the quality of cultivated crops. Cultivation at different altitudes and similar latitudes may offer an extraordinarily useful opportunity to trigger changes in climate variables and to further investigate their effect on crop quality. This study evaluated the effect of climatic indices, calculated using temperature, rainfall precipitation and solar radiation data, on commercial parameters and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) profile of wheat at harvest. Results: Three common and durum wheat varieties, including two heritage wheat, were sown in experimental fields sited at three altitudes for three consecutive years and analysed for their yield, grading parameters and VOCs profiles. The datasets were processed by partial least square regression (PLS-R) and the results indicate that summer days (SU25) and diurnal temperature range (ΔT) are the climatic indices mainly responsible for VOCs profile changes in both common and durum wheat. Accumulated growth degree days (GDD), consecutive dry days (CDD) and accumulated solar radiation (ASR) induced species-specific responses. Terpenes represented the chemical class of VOCs most affected by stresses followed by ketones, and alcohols, which were affected by CDD, GDD and ASR. Conslusion: This study showed a selective response of wheat to abiotic stresses associated with climate variables in terms of VOCs synthesis. The findings reported may be of relevance in several fields, from plant ecology to agronomy and food quality with final implication in local economy strategies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.