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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Poplarville, Mississippi » Southern Horticultural Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #377330
Research Project: Blueberry and Woody Ornamental Plant Improvement in the Southeast United States

Location: Southern Horticultural Research Unit

Title: Genetic diversity and pedigree analysis of muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) using SSR markers

Author
item CAO, SHANSHAN - University Of Georgia
item Stringer, Stephen
item GUNAWAN, GUNAWATI - University Of Georgia
item CONNER, PATRICK - University Of Georgia
item MCGREGOR, CECILLIA - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/21/2019
Publication Date: 4/13/2020
Citation: Cao, S., Stringer, S.J., Gunawan, G., Conner, P.J., McGregor, C. 2020. Genetic diversity and pedigree analysis of muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) using SSR markers. HortScience. 14(3):143-151. https://doi.org/10.21273/JASHS04856-20.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21273/JASHS04856-20

Interpretive Summary: Muscadine grape breeding over the l;ast century has created a large number of cultivars that are normally identified by comparing morphological traits and checking breeding records which are sometimes ambiguous and unauthentic. This study used simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to generate fingerprinting profiles to identify muscxadine cultivars and verify their reported pedigrees. Eighty-one uniqhe Muscadinia accessions were identified and a core set of fiver SSR markers was able to distinguis them all.

Technical Abstract: Muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia) was the first native North American grape to be dometsicated. Over the last century breeding programs have created a large collection of muscadine cultivars. They are normally identified by comaring morphological traits and checking breeding records, which are often ambiguous and can be unauthentic. In this study, simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to generate DNA fingerprinting profiles to identify muscadine cultivars and verify their reported pedigrees. Eighty-nine unique genotypes were differentiated out of 190 accessions using twenty SSRs from thirteen linkage groups. Eighty-one unique Muscadinia accessions were identified and a core set of five SSR markers was able to distinguish all of them. Nine cultivars were found with misidentified accessions, and five previously unknown accessions were matched with cultivars in the dataset. The profile of twelve cultivars was not consistent with their reported parent-progeny relationships. Genetic diversity was analyzed at four levels: all V rotundafolia cultivars (N=68), CURRENT CULTIVARS (n=40), historical cultivars (n=29), and wild V. rotundifolia accessions (N=9). Results showed there was substantial genetic diversity in both wild and historically cultivated muscadines. The Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) shows clear separation among subgenus Vitis cultivars, wild muscadine selections, and cultivated muscadines with PCoA1 and OCoA2 explaining 11.1% and 9.3% of the total variation, respectively.