Proceedings of the XLVI Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Giardini Naxos, Italy - 18/21 September, 2002

ISBN 88-900622-3-1

Poster Abstract - 1.18

generation of a common set of mapping markers to assist table grape breeding for fruit quality

Costantini L.*, LAMAJ F.**, Fanizza G.**, Grando M. S.*

*) lab. of molecular genetics, Istituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige, Via Mach 1, 38010 Trento

**) DiBCA Genetics and Plant Breeding Section, University of Bari, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari

table grape, SSRs, quantitative traits

Classical grapevine breeding is based on the controlled hybridisation of elite genotypes and the selection of F_l hybrids. It is a slow process specially for fruit traits, since there is no easy and accurate method to accelerate fructification. Consequently, selection of fruit traits requires about 5 years and a high investment in growing surface and culture management.

Understanding the genetic control of the traits of interest and using linked molecular markers could allow the rapid identification of seedlings with high probability to express the required fruit traits. This process of seedling genotyping could accelerate the breeding programs and increase their selection power, what has already been shown in other plant species.

Target features for table grape breeding are fruit traits such as seedlessness, berry size and berry flavour in combination with production traits like productivity and ripening date. There is a growing demand for seedless varieties in the table grape market. However, lack of seeds needs to be associated with large berry size and, in some markets, to Muscat flavour.

A co-operative project between Institutions from different countries in Latin America and Europe was recently started having the general objective to generate molecular tools for rapid and cost-efficient application of breeding programs in table grape. Its final aim is to facilitate and accelerate the process of development of new table grape varieties with new features.

We describe here our contribute to the development of genetic maps to be used for QTL detection in different varieties of table grape using a common set of highly polymorphic and well distributed SSRs per chromosome, and the first year evaluation of the phenotypic values of 190 F₁ individuals in the segregating progeny “Italia x Big Perlon”.