Parallel reductions in phenolic constituents resulting from the domestication of eggplant Author Meyer, Rachel S. The New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY 10458, United States & The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States & New York University, Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, 12 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10003, United States Author Whitaker, Bruce D. Author Little, Damon P. Author Wu, Shi-Biao Author Kennelly, Edward J. Author Long, Chun-Lin Author Litt, Amy text Phytochemistry 2015 2015-07-31 115 1 194 206 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.phytochem.2015.02.006 journal article 285558 10.1016/j.phytochem.2015.02.006 152a92bc-4c43-4de7-a8a1-c36679f34614 1873-3700 10486907 2.6. Differences in S. melongena profiles among genetic clusters To assess whether the eggplants from lineages of mainland origins ( India and China ) were chemically distinct from each other or from the lineage largely made up of island (Malesian) landraces, chemical differences, if any, were explored among the clusters in the PCoA remade from the AFLP data ( Meyer et al., 2012b ) containing only S. melongena samples used in this study. The PCoA resolved three clusters, in which the Chinese eggplants fell into both of the more populated clusters but were overrepresented in one (R), the Indian eggplants fell into the other of these clusters (L), and the small-fruited S. melongena subsp. ovigerum accessions, from SE Asia and Malesia , fell into the third, smaller, cluster (T) ( Fig. 5 ). ANOVA was used to assess whether there were differences in the abundance of any compounds among the three clusters, which would characterize the clusters for differences attributed to divergent selection on the lineages defined by genetic distance and geographic structure. ANOVA was performed for each of the 20 compounds that were present in at least one S. melongena accession. Results established six compounds that were significantly different in abundance ( p < 0.05) among the three clusters ( Table 5 ), but these differences were between S. melongena subsp. ovigerum and the two mainland lineages; the two mainland lineages were not distinct from each other. Four of these compounds were the HCAAs ( 7 , 9 , 11 , 12 ) and the remaining two compounds were tryptophan ( 32 ) and 5- O -[ Z ]-CQA ( 17 ). Five of these compounds [all but tryptophan ( 32 )] were the most abundant in cluster T, representing S. melongena subsp. ovigerum and the Malesian lineage ( Fig. 5 , Table 5 ). The finding that the island lineage of eggplant was distinguished by relatively high abundance of HCAAs, whereas mainland eggplant lineages were not chemically distinct, suggests this subspecies underwent a strikingly different evolutionary trajectory.