ViniGWAS – improving the selection of climate-resilient grapevine varieties

Abstract

Climate change and its consequences are becoming an increasing challenge for viticulture. The breeding of new grapevine varieties that are better adapted to the changing conditions offers a possible solution. Using genetic markers to assist selection in breeding already during the sapling stage increases breeding efficiency tremendously. Unlike markers for fungal resistance in grapevine that already exist, there is still a lack of markers for climate-relevant traits. To identify and characterize genomic regions of those traits, in order to allow the development of markers for breeding, is the aim of this project. A whole-genome sequencing approach coupled with genome-wide association studies (GWAS) is used to accomplish this. Several hundred different varieties of cultivated grapevine have been sequenced with a coverage of 30x as the genotypic basis of this research. Phenotypic data of relevant traits (like the time of budburst or of the start of ripening) of these genotypes exist for several years and will be continued to be recorded for the duration of the project. The genetic association of these traits shall then be clarified, using the advantages of GWAS like better detection power or higher resolution for polygenetic traits. By plugging these developed markers into a marker-assisted selection breeding workflow, the breeding of new and better climate-resilient grapevine varieties can be accelerated.