Integrating phenotypic analyses and color parameters: a multidimensional framework for precise color characterization in eggplant fruit.

Abstract

The accurate quantification of plant organ color remains a major challenge in plant variety identification, particularly when adjacent expression states exhibit subtle visual differences in color. This study addressed this challenge by integrating colorimetric, phenotypic, and genomic analyses of 137 eggplant germplasm resources to characterize their fruit color. The CIELAB color parameters accurately represented fruit coloration and exhibited strong correlations with DNA fingerprinting results, while also aligning with the visual description of color characteristics based on Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability (DUS) test guidelines. The color transition from harvest maturity to physiological ripeness was effectively captured by shifts in these values. Furthermore, the purple fruits at harvest maturity were subdivided into violet and red subcategories based on their CIELAB parameter distributions, and the yellow, ochre, and brown fruits at physiological ripeness were clearly separated using K-means clustering. Consequently, this study defined precise CIELAB ranges for each color category, offering a robust, multidimensional approach for the objective identification of eggplant varieties and enhancing the reproducibility of color-based DUS evaluations.

Plant phenotyping relevance

ナス果実という植物器官の色をCIELAB値とクラスタリングで定量・分類し、品種識別とDUS評価の再現性を高める方法が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The supplied blocks describe colorimetric measurements of 137 eggplant accessions, SSR genotyping, and K-means/PCA analyses, but contain no public deposit of the phenotype data, images, or analysis code. The only URL besides the article is a generic online LAB-to-RGB converter tool, not a paper-specific asset. A data/`

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