Genetic diversity among grapevine (Vitis Vinifera L.) cultivars grown in Pakistan by using ISSR markers

Abstract

Abstract Many European and indigenous cultivars of grapes are grown in Pakistan, however, their interrelationship is indistinct. For the identification of these cultivars ampelographic and genetic characterization were used to analyze the similarities and relatedness of grapevine cultivars. Morphological characterization of grapevine cultivars namely Red Globe, Autumn Royal, Crimson, Thompson, Perlette, Kings Ruby, Sundarkhani included berry morphology, fruit skin color, flesh color, sweetness, compactness, and weight of bunch of each cultivar and all the grapevine cultivars were different from each other morphologically based on the studied characters. Molecular diversity of these cultivars was evaluated using Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) marker. Six primers were evaluated which produced a total number of 84 scored bands ranging from 150bp to 1200bp. The polymorphism information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.233-0.457 and percentage of polymorphism varied with each primer ranging from 83 % to 100 %. All grape cultivars were vegetatively propagated which minimized genetic variation as the source of differences among them during the experimental work and data analysis. Our results indicate that ISSR fingerprints are an efficient method for identification and resolution of genetic diversity between different grape cultivars.