(265) DNA Sequence Variation within the Promoter of VvmybA1 Associates with Flesh Pigmentation of Intensely Colored Grape Varieties

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is one of our oldest domesticated crops and economically the most important cultivated fruit crop in the world. Cultivated grapes show substantial diversity in fruit color, including: varying shades of black, red, pink, grey, white, and types with pigmented berry flesh. The majority of V. vinifera cultivars only possess anthocyanin pigmentation in the skin of the berry (also known as teinturiers). However, some cultivars possess berries with intensely pigmented flesh as well as skin, which is often also associated with greater pigmentation of vegetative tissues. The genetic control and inheritance of fruit color in grapevine is poorly understood, despite evidence that the primary determination of anthocyanin production appears to be controlled by a single dominant locus in V. vinifera with white fruit being a recessive character. Recently, it has been shown that the presence of Gret1, a Ty3-gypsy-type retro-transposon in the promoter region of a myb-like regulatory gene is present in white-fruited cultivars of V. vinifera and that allelic variation in this gene associates with several qualitative classes of grape fruit color. It has been observed that the red-flesh berry phenotype is similarly controlled by a single dominant locus. Considering the association of variation in VvmybA1 with grape berry skin color, it was hypothesized that DNA sequence variation in VvmybA1 would also be associated with genotypes showing intensely pigmented berry flesh. In this study, we show that allelic variation in VvmybA1 associates with the teinturier phenotype both in a panel of accessions possessing red-flesh as well as in a population of full-sibs segregating for the red-flesh phenotype.