THE LARGEST PHENOTYPING OF GRAPEVINE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED

This is one of the most important results of the COST Action FA1003 GrapeNet (East-West Collaboration for Grapevine Diversity Exploration and Mobilization of Adaptive Traits for Breeding) coordinated by Osvaldo Failla, now director of DiSAA. For two consecutive years (2012 and 2013), the work involved researchers from 15 countries, from Armenia to Portugal, who operated in 20 germplasm collections, phenotyping with a common protocol about 2400 grapevine accessions (Vitis vinifera L.).  Phenotyping involved 26 carpological traits and the oenological potential of accessions.

Thanks to this work, we now know the phenotypic variability of the grapevine in relation to the studied traits. The initiative is a concrete demonstration of how to organize and manage conservation and enhancement germplasm networks not only to study phenotypic plasticity but also to identify useful traits for genetic improvement.

The figure shows the histograms relating to the variability in the size of the bunch and of the berry, the weight of the seeds and skins and their incidence on the berry, the number of seeds per berry and the levels of juice sugar and titratable acidity at ripening time.

Reference: Rustioni L., Cola G., Maghradze D., Abashidze E., Argiriou A., Aroutiounian R., Brazão J., Chipashvili R., Cocco M., Cornea V., Dejeu L., Eiras Dias J.E., Goryslavets S., Ibáñez J., Kocsis L., Lorenzini F., Maletic E., Mamasakhlisashvili L., Margaryan K., Maul E., Mdinaradze i., Melyan G., Michailidou S., Molitor D., Montemayor M.I., Muñoz-Organero G., Nebish A., Nemeth G., Nikolaou N., Popescu C.F., Preiner D., Raimondi S., Risovannaya V., Savin G., Savvides S., Schneider A., Schwander F., Spring J.L., Ujmajuridze L., Zioziou E., Failla O. and Bacilieri R. (2019) Description of the Vitis vinifera L. phenotypic variability in eno-carpological traits by a Euro-Asiatic collaborative network among ampelographic collections, 46, 37–46. doi:10.5073/vitis.2019.58.37-46.