Microsatellite analysis of ancient alpine grape cultivars: pedigree reconstruction of Vitis vinifera L. 'Cornalin du Valais'

Abstract

Ancient and closely related grape cultivars from the Alps were analyzed with 50 microsatellite markers: 'Cornalin', 'Humagne Rouge' and 'Goron' from Valais (Switzerland); 'Cornalin', 'Petit Rouge' and 'Mayolet' from the Aosta Valley (Italy). Our results confirmed previous studies showing that the 'Cornalin' cultivars from Switzerland and Italy are distinct, and that 'Humagne Rouge' is identical to 'Cornalin' from the Aosta Valley. We propose the nomenclature 'Cornalin du Valais' and 'Cornalin d'Aoste' in order to prevent further confusion. At each locus, 'Goron', 'Petit Rouge', 'Mayolet' and 'Cornalin d'Aoste' all share at least one allele with 'Cornalin du Valais', strongly suggesting parent/offspring relationships. Alleles at 49 out of 50 microsatellite loci are consistent with 'Cornalin du Valais' being the progeny of 'Petit Rouge' and 'Mayolet'. The exception is a 10-base pair discrepancy at one locus, most likely the result of somatic mutation in one of the parents, since this parentage is supported by high likelihood ratios and historical data. We hypothesize that 'Cornalin du Valais' originated in the Aosta Valley through a natural cross and was then introduced into Valais centuries ago, probably via the Great St. Bernard Pass. Furthermore, 'Cornalin du Valais' is likely to be one of the parents of both 'Goron' and 'Cornalin d'Aoste', the respective second parents remaining unknown. This pedigree provides a convincing explanation for the allele-sharing patterns and is strongly supported by historical data. The present work is the first grapevine parentage study to deal with a multiple repeat unit discrepancy at a microsatellite locus. We suggest that the use of increasingly large numbers of loci in making parentage determinations leads to a corresponding increase in the probability of encountering a locus with intra-cultivar variability during the analysis. We therefore assume that a sole multiple repeat unit discrepancy is not sufficient to discard a parentage hypothesis.

Genealogy of wine grape cultivars: ‘Pinot’ is related to ‘Syrah’

“…These authors also showed that 'Syrah', the famous Rhone Valley red grape cultivar now planted worldwide, is the progeny of 'Dureza' from Ardèche and 'Mondeuse Blanche' from Savoy in south-eastern France. While analysing a group of closely related Alpine cultivars with 32 microsatellites, Vouillamoz et al (2003) curiously found four putative parents for 'Cornalin du Valais', an ancient Swiss Valais variety, and up to 50 microsatellite markers were necessary to identify both parents. The two remaining candidates turned out to be offspring of 'Cornalin du Valais', the other parent being unknown.…”

“…The two remaining candidates turned out to be offspring of 'Cornalin du Valais', the other parent being unknown. Thanks to the presence of father-mother-offspring trios, these parentages could be used indirectly to detect pairs of full-siblings (FS) (120 in Bowers et al (1999a), four in Bowers et al (2000), one in Sefc et al (1998)), half-siblings (two in Sefc et al (1998), one in Vouillamoz et al (2003)) and grandparent-grandoffspring (six in Sefc et al (1998), four in Vouillamoz et al (2003)). Yet, it is not always possible to uncover both parents of a grape cultivar, simply because most of them might have now disappeared as a result of frost, pests like phylloxera or lack of interest.…”

Changes on microsatellites of expressed sequence tag of sugarcane (Saccharum spp) during vegetative propagation

“…Somatic mutations in vegetative-propagated plants are relatively frequent natural events reported since the 90s of the last century (Franks et al, 2002;Vouillamoz et al, 2003), which have been recently evident at DNA level (Vezzulli et al, 2012). The occurrence of somatic recombination in addition to somatic mutations in grapes that were vegetatively propagated was reported as an event that may promote gene homozygosis in the heterozygous condition (Oliveira-Collet et al, 2005).…”

'Black star': uma mutação somática natural da uva fina de mesa cv. Brasil

“…Em geral, elas são espontâneas e ocorrem de maneira não prevista e em baixa frequência, em taxas de 10 -6 a 10 -8 (PIRES et al, 2003). Entretanto, as mutações somáticas em videiras são relativamente frequentes e têm possibilitado o surgimento de novas variedades (CAMARGO, 1994;VOUILLAMOZ et al, 2003).…”