Identification of disease resistance-linked alleles in Vitis vinifera germplasm

¹ Department of Genomics and Biology of Fruit Crops, Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Via Mach 1 38010 San Michele all'Adige (Trento), Italy
² Department of Sustainable Ecosystems and Bioresources, Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Via Mach 1 38010 San Michele all'Adige (Trento), Italy
³ Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences − DiSAA, University of Milano, Via Celoria 2 20133 Milano, Italy
⁴ Center Agriculture Food Environment − C3A, University of Trento, Via Mach 1 38010 San Michele all'Adige (Trento), Italy

^* Corresponding author: stella.grando@unitn.it

Abstract

Introgression of genetic resistance to fungal diseases from American and Asian Vitis species traditionally pursued in grape breeding programs, although facilitated by molecular tools, has an impact on wine quality that still slows down development of competitive varieties. A contribution to the genetic improvement of grapevines for resistance to pathogens may come from unexplored genetic resources of the Eurasian Vitis vinifera L. In the present study, a hundred grapevine accessions from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were genotyped with SSR markers linked to QTLs for resistance to downy and powdery mildew, and with 21 SSR markers widely used for genetic diversity and relationship analysis. Looking at population genetic structure, Armenian and Azerbaijani accessions fell within the same cluster and were included among the Central Asian grape varieties of a homogeneous dataset, while Georgian accessions formed a separate group. Pattern of SSR alleles flanking the locus Ren1 and associated with resistance to Erysiphe necator in 'Kishmish vatkana', 'Dzhandzhal kara' and other Central Asian cultivars were found in three varieties from the Azerbaijani population that reached very high scores when assessed for PM resistance.