{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T06:03:02Z","timestamp":1789970582316,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789948800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Plant Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Harvest maturity is associated with the biochemical status of leaf-harvested crops before postharvest processing, but the extent to which maturity-established metabolic differences are retained or transformed during flue-curing remains unclear in\n                    <jats:italic>Nicotiana tabacum<\/jats:italic>\n                    . Here, middle leaves of Yunyan 87 grown at a single experimental site were harvested at five harvest-maturity treatments (16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 days after topping). T1 and T5 were selected as contrasting harvest-maturity endpoints for paired metabolomic analyses of fresh leaves (F_T5 vs. F_T1), flue-cured leaves (FC_T5 vs. FC_T1), and direct fresh-to-flue-cured metabolite abundance changes at the same harvest-maturity treatment (FC_T1 vs. F_T1 and FC_T5 vs. F_T5). Phenotype, SPAD values, color traits, enzyme activities, conventional chemical constituents, auxiliary flue-cured leaf traits, and untargeted UPLC-HRMS metabolomics were integrated. Increasing maturity was accompanied by progressive yellowing, decreased SPAD and H\u00b0 values, and increased L*, a*, b*, and C*. Fresh T5 leaves showed metabolic changes linked to carbon allocation, secondary metabolism, hormone\/terpenoid-related pathways, phenylpropanoid-related metabolism, and redox adjustment. After flue-curing, maturity-associated differences were mainly reflected in aromatic amino acid metabolism, especially tryptophan and phenylalanine metabolism, together with secondary metabolism, metabolites assigned to transporter-associated KEGG categories, carbohydrate-related substrates, amino acid-related compounds, and lipid-associated remodeling. Direct fresh-to-flue-cured comparisons identified 84 and 85 differential metabolites at T1 and T5, respectively, including 70 shared metabolites and harvest-maturity-associated, comparison-specific components. These results identify a continuous physiological and conventional chemical maturity gradient across T1\u2013T5 and endpoint metabolomic differences between the contrasting T1 and T5 treatments. Together, the findings suggest that harvest maturity is associated with both the fresh-leaf biochemical starting point and the metabolite abundance profile observed after flue-curing, although intermediate metabolomic states and causal mechanisms underlying individual metabolite changes remain to be determined.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2026.1939922","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T05:36:51Z","timestamp":1789969011000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Harvest maturity is associated with carbon reallocation and fresh-to-flue-cured metabolic changes in Nicotiana tabacum leaves"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Ao","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Agronomy and Resources & Environment, Tianjin Agricultural University","place":["Tianjin, China"]},{"name":"Guizhou Academy of Tobacco Science\/Key Laboratory of Tobacco Quality and Ecology in Mountainous Areas","place":["Guiyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chenyu","family":"Cai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Agronomy and Resources & Environment, Tianjin Agricultural University","place":["Tianjin, China"]},{"name":"Guizhou Academy of Tobacco Science\/Key Laboratory of Tobacco Quality and Ecology in Mountainous Areas","place":["Guiyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuanfei","family":"Lou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technology Center of China Tobacco Guizhou Industrial, Co., Ltd.","place":["Guiyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qi","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Zunyi Tobacco Company of Guizhou Province","place":["Zunyi, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kesu","family":"Wei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guizhou Academy of Tobacco Science\/Key Laboratory of Tobacco Quality and Ecology in Mountainous Areas","place":["Guiyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Changyun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guizhou Academy of Tobacco Science\/Key Laboratory of Tobacco Quality and Ecology in Mountainous Areas","place":["Guiyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bo","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guizhou Academy of Tobacco Science\/Key Laboratory of Tobacco Quality and Ecology in Mountainous Areas","place":["Guiyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bohao","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guizhou Academy of Tobacco Science\/Key Laboratory of Tobacco Quality and Ecology in Mountainous Areas","place":["Guiyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaodong","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Agronomy and Resources & Environment, Tianjin Agricultural University","place":["Tianjin, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shengjiang","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Agronomy and Resources & Environment, Tianjin Agricultural University","place":["Tianjin, China"]},{"name":"Guizhou Academy of Tobacco Science\/Key Laboratory of Tobacco Quality and Ecology in Mountainous Areas","place":["Guiyang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gaoyi","family":"Cao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Agronomy and Resources & Environment, Tianjin Agricultural University","place":["Tianjin, China"]},{"name":"Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County Agricultural Technology Extension Station","place":["Tianshui, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules25071734","article-title":"Carbohydrates\u2014key players in tobacco aroma formation and quality determination","volume":"25","author":"Bano\u017ei\u0107","year":"2020","journal-title":"Molecules"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5924","DOI":"10.1021\/jf000599m","article-title":"Fast apple (Malus \u00d7 domestica) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaf polyphenol oxidase activity assay for screening transgenic plants","volume":"48","author":"Broothaerts","year":"2000","journal-title":"J. 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