ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AND RELATIONSHIPS AMONG GRAPEVINE CULTIVARS ORIGINATING IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA USING ISSR MARKERS

Abstract

The study shows genetic diversity of 38 Vitis vinifera L. cultivars and hybrids originating in North America and Europe, including cultivars selected in Poland, which have not been characterized with the use of DNA markers yet. The agrobiological features of the genotypes selected for testing, indicate that they may be useful for the breeding of new cultivars and grape production. The use of 12 ISSR primers allowed to obtain 94.4% of polymorphism. The polymorphic information content (PIC) value was high and varied between 0.829 and 0.953 with an average of 0.897. The resolving power (Rp) ranged between 3.678 and 8.892 with an average of 6.347. Primers UBC 809, UBC 810, UBC 812, UBC 855, UBC 891 and UBC 810 were found to be highly effective (informative). Similarity coefficient ranged between 0.167 and 1.0, which indicates high degree of diversity of tested  grape cultivars. Tested cultivars were grouped in 3 main clusters; one of them was further divided into 6 subclusters. ‘Pannonia Kincse’ and ‘Danmarpa Polonia’ were not differentiated. Phenotypic differences among those two cultivars suggest that ‘Danmarpa Polonia’ might be a clone of ‘Pannonia Kincse’ and other molecular techniques must be used to differentiate them. Morphological and agrobiological characters of cultivars support the results obtained by ISSR markers.