Genetic Diversity of Wild and Cultivated Muscadine Grapes (Vitis rotundifolia Michx.)

Abstract

The muscadine (Vitis rotundifoliasyn.Muscadinia rotundifolia) is an American grape species native to the southeastern United States that has been cultivated for centuries. Muscadines are one of three grape species in subgenusMuscadiniawith a chromosome number of 2n = 40 (V. rotundifolia,Vitis munsoniana, andVitis popenoei), making them genetically distinct from the European wine and table grape (Vitis vinifera) and other species in subgenusEuvitis. Crop improvement efforts have been continuous since the late 19th century, yet the germplasm that served as the foundation for early muscadine breeding efforts was sourced from a relatively small portion of their native range, mostly in the coastal plains of North Carolina. This study used the rhAmpSeqVitiscore panel haplotype markers to genotype 194Muscadiniaaccessions from five cultivated populations and 15 wild populations collected across their native range. Wild populations from the western half of the native range were generally less genetically differentiated than hypothesized, but were genetically distinct from the material used in both past and present breeding efforts. One population collected from coastal North Carolina grouped closely withV. munsonianaaccessions despite being well outside the reported range for that species. Principal coordinate andstructureanalyses revealed three main groups within the 194 accessions: one for cultivated material, one for wildV. rotundifolia, and one forV. munsonianaandV. popenoei. AtK = 5,structureresults showed that more recent muscadine cultivars are further differentiated from wild accessions and varieties. These analyses confirmed our hypothesis that muscadine cultivars are genetically differentiated from their wild counterparts. This study also showed that genetic diversity inV. rotundifoliais not equally distributed across its native range and that the limited number of genotypes used in crop improvement efforts has not fully utilized the genetic diversity within the species.