Effect of excessive nitrogen on levels of amino acids and sugars, and differential response to post-harvest cold storage in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tubers

Nitrogen (N) is an important nutrient for increased potato tuber yield. However, excessive N can decrease tuber quality. Furthermore, the impact of optimal and higher N levels of potato tuber metabolic profile at harvest and cold storage remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the metabolic profiling of free amino acids and sugars in potato tubers affected by different nitrogen levels (optimal, ON; and excessive, EN) at harvest (AH) and cold storage (CS) (~4 °C, 4 weeks) through untargeted GC–TOF–MS, and targeted UHPLC–QqQ–MS. Carbohydrate content and vacuolar invertase activity (IV) were determined. Principal component analysis of metabolite data indicated a distinct separation between ON and EN treatments at harvest and cold storage. Multivariate data analysis revealed that sucrose, reducing sugars, and free asparagine were the most altered metabolites (VIP > 1 and P < 0.05), which were involved in starch and sucrose metabolism, and alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism. At harvest, the absolute contents of various free amino acids including asparagine were higher (by 1.3–1.5 fold) in the EN treatment than ON treatment, and this difference was maintained at 4-week cold storage. Under the EN treatment, tuber maturity was reduced, and sucrose accumulation was increased at harvest, while IV was increased after cold storage, reducing sugar also accumulated. These results highlighted the negative effects of EN on free amino acid and sugars metabolism in the post–harvest tubers and provided useful information for understanding the underpinning physiological mechanisms.