Embryo Rescue of Cold-hardy Table Grapes

Seedlessness is one of the most desirable traits for table and raisin grapes. Stenospermocarpic cultivars are desirable because they have large berries with superior quality. Embryo rescue techniques have been widely used to get progeny seedling populations from crosses using seedless mother plants. Selection of the female parent, sampling time, and the growth medium are the most crucial to the success of this technique. This study investigated the effect of best sampling time and media composition on embryo rescue efficiency in a cold-hardy hybrid grape breeding program. We sampled ovules 5 to 9 weeks after flowering, and we tested four media compositions. The greatest percentages of embryo germination and normal seedlings were obtained when ovules were harvest at 8 weeks after flowering, indicating that it is suitable to harvest ovules at veraison, when the extraction of ovules is easier as a result of softer berry flesh. For the media composition experiment, all ovules were harvested at 8 weeks after flowering. Nitsch & Nitsch culture medium had very low germination, and the resulting seedlings performed the lowest compared with the other treatments. Lloyd & McCown Woody Plant Basal Medium (WPM) increased the number of embryos germinated significantly, and a number of normal seedlings and plantlets developed. Although there was no significant difference among the other three media containing WPM supplemented with different doses of plant regulators, the WPM Plus medium [with cytokinin (6-benzlaminopurine), indole-3-butyric acid, gibberellin, and casein hydrolysate] promoted the greatest percentage of established plants (46.98%). Therefore, the 8-weeks-after-flowering harvest time and the WPM Plus medium were selected for use in the embryo rescue protocol at the University of Minnesota grape breeding program.

Grape breeding is a key link in the development of the grapes and wine-making industry

The article considers the legislative and regulatory acts that specify the tasks in the implementation of breeding processes. The results of the creation, variety testing, patenting and introduction of grape varieties and clones into the State Register of the Russian Federation for 2010–2020 are presented. The article analyzes the relationship between the indicators of industrial development with the production volumes of planting material, the use of domestic varieties that are included in the State Register of the Russian Federation. The characteristic of ampelographic collections – the genetic resources of grapes – is given. A comparative analysis of many years’ worth of data on the assessment of the adaptive potential of domestic varieties and introduced varieties is presented. The article describes domestic varieties, from which premium wines are produced, which not only competes with European varieties, but also surpasses the organoleptic properties and biochemical parameters of grape must and wine material. The main problems hindering the wide demand for domestic varieties on the market, including a substantial amount of imported European varietal planting material, are described. The necessity of accelerating breeding processes is actualized, modern methods are identified, including those of generative and genomic selection, transgenic technologies, cellular, mutational, and clone selection, and priority areas in breeding are presented. The numerical and qualitative analyses of the composition of breeding scientists is given, the trends of increasing the number and qualitative composition of breeders, the influx of young people, the growing need for training qualified personnel are noted. The number of bachelor’s, master’s and post-graduate students specializing in viticulture in general and in selection in particular as well as the number of defended dissertation studies on grape breeding has been found to be insufficient. The main scientific and practical problems in the organization and implementation of breeding processes in ensuring the development of the industry are updated, including a low share of domestic varieties in the produced planting material and planting, the lack of a systemically implemented varietal and technological policy, the imperfection of the legal system for the protection of intellectual property, a low availability of instrumentation and analytical equipment for the implementation of breeding by modern methods.

Local Names of Wild Grapevine in Georgia and Its Ethnobotanical Use

Wild grapevine Vitis vinifera subsp. sylvestris (C.C.Gmel.) Hegi is a typical plant of Georgian flora, spread in our country. Consequently, a numerous number of local synonym names of this plant are available in different historical-ethnographic provinces of Georgia. Among these names ‘Krikina’, ‘Babilo’, ‘Mortskhula’, ‘Brdzghuamli’ and ‘Dzghvamli’ are more spread, having different spelling variations. The great contrubution of wild grape is that it, as an ancestor of cultivated grapevine, made the basis of grape breeding in Georgia and is a distant relative of our varieties. Besides, as it was demonstrated by the ethnobotanical research, due to long period present in the forests of Georgia the local people used this plant as a food (grape, pickles), a beverage (young fermented wine ‘Machari’, wine, grappa), a construction material (buildings, door for a church, breedge), a tool for washing Qvevri, a pollinator for grape cultivars, a honey plant, a rootstock, a planting material for vineyards.

Lines of grape breeding for the conditions of the Volgograd region

The article presents an analysis of the accumulated experience and preliminary results of many years research on hybridization of Amur grapes for the conditions of the Volgograd region in order to obtain winter-hardy varieties for non-covered industrial culture with high quality berries and wine products.

Correlations Between Phenolic Composition and Perceived Astringency of Wines

The astringent sensation of wines is attributable to the composition and concentration of phenolic compounds. However, in many cases, experimental results have shown a gap in relation to sensory astringency. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationships between the experimental evidence of astringent attributes and perceived astringency. To this end, the concentrations of phenolic compounds, namely, the total phenolic content (TPC), the polymeric tannin content (PTC), the proanthocyanidin content (PAC) and the total anthocyanin content (TAC), in wines made from a variety of grape breeding lines were estimated and their relationships to perceived astringency were evaluated. The TPC and the PTC showed strong positive correlations with perceived astringency. In contrast, the PAC showed a moderate correlation with perceived astringency, which was lower than that shown by the PTC despite their similar phenolic compositions. Unlike the other attributes, the TAC showed a weak correlation with perceived astringency. We concluded that the TPC and the PTC showed good correlations with perceived astringency and could be used as an index for predicting the astringency of wines.

Grape-RNA: A Database for the Collection, Evaluation, Treatment, and Data Sharing of Grape RNA-Seq Datasets

Since its inception, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has become the most effective way to study gene expression. After more than a decade of development, numerous RNA-seq datasets have been created, and the full utilization of these datasets has emerged as a major issue. In this study, we built a comprehensive database named Grape-RNA, which is focused on the collection, evaluation, treatment, and data sharing of grape RNA-seq datasets. This database contains 1529 RNA-seq samples, 112 microRNA samples from the public platform, and 485 RNA-seq in-house datasets sequenced by our lab. We classified these data into 25 conditions and provide the sample information, cleaned raw data, expression level, assembled unigenes, useful tools, and other relevant information to the users. Thus, this study provides data and tools that should be beneficial for researchers by allowing them to easily use the RNA-seq. The provided information can greatly contribute to grape breeding and genomic and biological research. This study may improve the usage of RNA-seq.

THE BREEDING PROGRAM OF SEEDLESS GRAPES, THE EXISTING PROBLEMS IN REPUBLIC AND A PROSPECTS OF INTRODUCING THE GEN TECHNOLOGIES

This article discusses problems in the breeding programs of the seedless grapes, the way of introducing of the biotechnology and gene technology skills to resolve its issues, and the advantages of molecular markers to select seedlessness among the hybrid progeny of grapes. Uzbekistan is famous for its seedless grapes, but on the other hand, the grape breeding is oriented on the conventional breeding method. In other words, seedless grapes have a recessive character, a male form is using only as a pollinator, and all these factors limit to create new seedless varieties and forms. Nowadays the word grape breeders, especially seedless grape breeders use advantages of the biotechnology and gene technology skills to resolve above listed issues. As a result, except for obtaining hybrid progeny by crossing between ♂seedless × seeded ♀ that was an unchangeable algorithm of the cross combination in the traditional grape breeding. But today, researchers argued that crossing between ♂seedless × seedless ♀ is also possible to obtain a hybrid progeny through “embryo rescue technique”. Thus introducing this novel breeding program directly to grape breeding of Uzbekistan leads to an increase the diversity of the new seedless grape varieties and also for increasing the export potential of the grape industry. KEYWORDS: Seedless grape varieties, variety, cross combination, embryo culture, molecular markers, DNA.

Advances in phenology and harvest characterization of the Chilean Vitis sp. germplasm collection and its use in table grape breeding

Germplasm collection and characterization is essential for plant breeding. Chile holds a collection of 347 Vitis accessions at Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, La Platina, that have been successfully used to develop new table grape cultivars such as Maylen®. Located in the central valley of Chile, a section of the Vitis collection was characterized for two consecutive seasons for phenology as well as fruit quality parameters at harvest. In terms of phenology, the collections can be grouped in four main clusters, with a higher representation of individuals at the middle and late timing. Fruit phenotyping showed significant differences among wine and table grapes for cluster and berry weight, seed number and fresh seed weight, polar and equatorial diameters, as well as the ratio among these parameters. Interestingly, rachis weight, a novel parameter associated with fruit storage capacity, did not show differences among groups. Other novel traits, such as the combination of commercial seedleesness and berry equatorial diameters above 2cm were less represented, suggesting the need to create and introduce genetic variability for table grape breeding purposes.