Genetic components of consumer liking based on visual appearance of leaf types in Brassica vegetables

Establishing a genetic basis of consumer liking and identifying the traits underlying consumer liking are necessary components to build a vegetable breeding program guided by consumer preference. Leafy Brassica (Brassica oleracea) crops are diverse and provide a unique platform to understand the relevance of consumer response and market potential of new genotypes in a breeding program. In this study, eight morphologically distinct B. oleracea inbred lines were used as parents to develop a half-diallel mating design. Parental lines and hybrid progeny (n = 28) were subject to genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), preliminary morphological and phytochemical evaluations, and an online consumer acceptance survey whereby consumers (n = 564) rated their overall visual liking and familiarity of each genotype. Trends in parental selection underscore the success of hybrid progeny; novel leaf types that were well received by consumer participants typically incorporated some “familiar” aspect from kale or collard breeding lines. After accounting for a strong correlation between consumer liking and familiarity, a small heritable (h2 = 0.37) genetic component of consumer liking was identified. Population structure analyses using 34,983 SNP markers differentiated breeding materials and commercially available cultivars, and phytochemical profiles exhibited moderate genetic variance due to parental type. This work highlights the importance of parental selection in developing new genotypes to suit current consumer preferences and the use of next-generation sequencing to draw connections between genotypic diversity and consumer liking. Further, this work demonstrates the capacity of existing breeding materials to introduce novel leafy Brassica cultivars with market potential.