ISHS Acta Horticulturae 603: VIII International Conference on Grape Genetics and Breeding
CONGRATULATIONS, INTRODUCTION, WELCOME, PREFACE, FOREWORD AND SUMMARY |
| Authors: | E. Hajdu, E.P. Botos, G. Alleweldt, P. Biacs, E.P Botos, The ISHS Board of Directors, J.V. Possingham |
| Abstract:
CONGRATULATIONS Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Colleagues, Anywhere in the world, an international conference is an important event for scientists working in the same field – in our case in vine breeding. Vine breeders and geneticists coming from 28 different countries have gathered here in Kecskemét in Hungary.It is a great distinction for the participants but especially so for our country, as the host of such a distinguished meeting. In the same time it gives opportunity to celebrate noteworthy events and feasts. Professor Alleweldt celebrated his 75th birthday on 21st July 2002. My heartfelt congratulations also in the name of vine breeders and geneticists. Professor Alleweldt is an eminent personality in the practices and theory of vine breeding. He worked in Siebeldingen, at the Research Institute of Geiweilerhof in Germany, first beside the famous professor Husfeld and later as director of the Institute. He has been a respected leading personality in vine breeding as also proved by the honours received at numerous national and international meetings. As a professor at the University of Hohenheim he could influence and form his students’ ideas about the future. He was able to establish lasting professional relations with national and international institutions in the field of scientists, variety and literature exchange and breeding programmes. He received holders of scholarships from every part of the world. He was always willing to share his results and observations with them. We, in Hungary, are also thankful for his unselfish support. His personality is the cohesive force to keep vine breeders together. One of his aims in life was to breed resistant vine varieties in a common effort with his Institute. He was untiring in developing disease resistant varieties adapted to environment friendly cultivation and in looking for suitable gene sources. Some of his important varieties developed by traditional cross breeding include Phönix, Orion, Regent, etc. He also planned numerous new breeding lines which can serve as basis for his successors. We know, that numerous hybrids of his initiation which excel in reliable yield, high resistance and quality wine are expecting qualification. Among plant breeders vine breeders are relatively low in number and are active in a small circle. No wonder, as vine is a perennial woody plant and results can only be expected after long years of efforts. Moreover, it is difficult for a new variety to break through long traditions. Also characters are of polygenic inheritance which is also a hidrance in planning combinations. In vine breeding only breeders of high professional knowledge, foresight, strong faith and assiduity can survive. Professor Alleweldt is a model in this respect, too. Well aware of the actions in breeding shops all over the world Professor Alleweldt initiated an International Vine Breeding Conference in 1973. It is a favourable occasion to present new results in vine breeding. Up to now there have been 7 meetings in different countries (Germany, France, USA, Italy, etc.). The 8th conference has for place Kecskemét in Hungary. It is a great honour for every participant and especially for Hungary that vine breeders and geneticists have gathered here from every part of the world to discuss latest results. It is due to Professor Alleweldt that we can do this. Dear Professor, Congratulations on your success in life and vine breeding. We thank you for having started the conference and with it, the union of vine breeders. May God give you force and good health. Will you accept this modest present. Dr. Edit Hajdu Organizing Committee Secretary Dr. Ernö Petér Botos Organizing Committee President INTRODUCTION Ladies and Gentlemen, old friends and, hopefully, new ones as well! It is with much pleasure that I accepted the invitation to reflect on the development of this international symposium, especially in this charming country. From a very general point of view, a continuous and prosperous existence of viticulture can only be assured when we succeed in raising and maintaining a high product quality of wine, table grapes, raisins or rootstocks. Furthermore, our efforts have to be focused on realising a sustainable grapegrowing in accordance with the highest possible standard of environmental protection. I know and agree, that these goals can only be achieved by many issues, but I am also convinced that amongst these breeding is certainly the most prominent one, by developing cultivars which are highly resistant or tolerant to pests and diseases, which possess a high potential to withstand abiotic stress and also fulfil all demands of quality. Therefore, I am exceptionally pleased that the tradition of this Symposium is kept alive, which was initiated in 1973 by members of the Geilweilerhof. It is now the 8th symposium and the first one in this Millennium. The purpose to invite grapevine breeders in 1973 was to present and identify the most recent developments in breeding research, to exchange and discuss updated information, to evaluate the advances of grape breeding, to share the expertise of grapevine breeders, and, last but not least, to stimulate friendship amongst the members of the grape breeding community. This intention was very successful as can be seen by the overwhelming number of participants here in Kecskemet. Let me add a personal remark about the first meeting at the Geilweilerhof. After a long day discussing many aspects of breeding, Dr. Rives from France, Dr. Olmo from the United States and I came to the conclusion that a periodical continuation of this meeting would certainly be of mutual interest. Thus, Dr. Rives and Dr. Pouget organized the second meeting in 1977 in Bordeaux, France, and Dr. Olmo the third Symposium in 1980 in Davis, California. Further conferences were hosted 1986 in Verona, Italy 1989 in St. Martin, Germany 1994 in Yalta, Ukraine 1998 in Montpellier, France. It is worth mentioning that up to 1973 grape breeders had no international forum to present their results, independently from other aspects of viticulture or horticulture. The Expert Group of grape breeders within the OIV was founded later and obliged to consider the political aspects of grape breeding, as there are plant patents and breeders rights, naming systems of transgenic grapevines as well as the evaluation and maintenance of the genetic resources of the genus Vitis. In Bordeaux an organizing committee was founded, to assure the continuation of an independent union of grape breeders. This was actually the beginning of a symposium on grapevine genetics and breeding. The fact that our Hungarian friends have organized this conference is the result of a long history of very efficient grapevine breeding in this country. Names like Teleki, Mathiasz Janos, Szegedi Sandor, Pal Kozma or Jozsef Csizmazia - I am sure that this list is very incomplete - mark the international importance of grape breeding in Hungary. Up to 1994 the symposium gave prominence to more applied aspects of breeding. In Yalta, however, the first successful results of genetic engineering of rootstocks were represented by our French Colleagues. Since than the main topics are genome analysis, germplasm management by genetic mapping, the development of genetic markers and so on. The fundamental challenge of present breeding programs is without any doubt the production of transgenic grapes, possessing new and most valuable genes. The tremendous progress in these different fields of research is exceptional. The danger of an increasing competition between breeders can only be prevented by cooperation, by a free access and beneficial sharing of e.g. germplasm, including molecular germplasm, as well as open discussions during this conference. I hope and believe that this symposium will again contribute to the initiated cooperation. But, some more or less dark clouds raise an the grape breeding horizon. They are caused by a very different attitude towards transgenic plants by many consumers and politicians. One hesitates to say that it seems to be easier to produce transgenic vines than to convince a consumer to accept these varieties and not to block the promising road of evolution. Times when contemplation ruled the events of life are gone forever. The consumers’ aversion towards gene transfer was not foreseen. Reliable information is a possible key to a better understanding of gene transfer by the consumers. Nevertheless, the tools provided by molecular research to the breeding progress in developing new varieties, for example by means of a marker-assisted selection, should provide the necessary impetus to continue molecular research of the grapevine in context with conventional breeding. In this discussion with the consumers’ attitude we should never forget that wine is a beverage which is capable to give every consumer a sense of well-being! When I now conclude my short introduction and express my sincere appreciation to the symposium organizers, I may remind you as a German citizen that the self-evident liberty we nowadays acknowledge is primarily due to the unselfish and admirable courage of the Hungarian people in 1988, to release German refugees from the former DDR in Budapest to cross the iron curtain at the Hungarian-Austrian border, in order to live in a free country. This brought the terrible confrontation between East and West to an unexpected happy end to the benefit of all people in the world. My hope is now, that Hungary is prepared to join the European Union not later than 2004. May the days ahead provide the basis for mutual discussions and friendships! Thank you. G. Alleweldt WELCOME Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Participants The vine breeders, geneticists and wine producers of our country feel greatly honoured that, after France, Germany, US and Italy, Kecskemét in Hungary has been chosen for the place of the VIIIth International Conference on Grape Genetics and Breeding held in every 4 years. The presence of two hundred delegates are the proof of the general interest. They will inform the world in 70 lectures of their results and novelties. They will inform us of clone selection, cross breeding, resistance breeding and interactions with environment problems. Geneticists have now enormous possibilities to free the world from noxious chemicals by introducing new, resistant varieties into production. This task is a moral duty for every geneticist all the world over. It is a good thing that lectures deal with DNS, microsatellites and iso-enzyme tests and their role in heritability. Stress is laid on research of gene sources which by utilizing gene stores from the past and present, enable the development of new varieties by cross breeding. Particularly important are the results obtained in rootstock, table grape and wine grape breeding. You have the possibility in front of you to develop resistant, high quality wine grape varieties so as to offer consumers extra quality wines. Hungary is on top of breeding new varieties as proved by names such as Pál Kozma, József Csizmazia and Károly Bakonyi, who is the breeder of Cserszegi fűszeres, a successful variety of recent years in Hungary. The interspecific varieties of J. Csizmazia e.g. Zalagyöngye, is a fine example of resistance breeding. This trend in breeding has long been regarded skeptically by fellow breeders but, now, a decision of EU refers to the possibility of regulating the cultivation of interspecific varieties based on trial results by the end of 2007. The way to future is an integrated, controlled production. The tasks mentioned above will stimulate and keep geneticists and breeders employed for long years to come to introduce plants of high biological qualities and to utilize production potentials. The wine produced in this way will satisfy environment protection requirements as well as consumers’ demands for high quality. Hungary has always welcomed new results and never lagged behind in adapting them. Today, we also expect new results, we want to join efforts to shape viticulture to the benefit of all interested in it. I welcome you in the name of the Government and the Ministry and wish you excellent lectures and much success to the Conference. Dr. Péter Biacs deputy under-secretary of state PREFACE It is extremely important moment when the representatives of a discipline decide to meet from, all over the world so as to exchange their best knowledge. It is really so if the subjects is a conservative science namely grape-vine breeding and genetics, but nowadays its limits are extended by means of biotechnology. The importance may be underlined by the fact that the host is a traditional grape-vine breeding country Hungary, deserving international reputation by reason of its long term success of their breeders, listing quite a lot new grape-vine varieties and their clones. In summer of 2002 scientists of the field will meet in order to understand the new situation, look into new challenges, future potential and also to take into our consideration the risks. It is useless to point out how difficult is for the conference to force what is almost impossible to see now, to know what is hardly to be known and to slow down the accelerated progress what will not be limited for sure. Just because it’s inside rule is to speed up without paying any attention to the traditionally slow process of grapevine breeding technics as well as breeders who always needs patient and time. The most delegates are supposed to stop for a moment to think it over and over again, to look for answers, to reconsider what is happening to the wine sector. In which direction grape-vine breeding and genetics will develop, and little or not at all can this way be under control? At first sight there is a considerable contradiction between new and traditional varieties from their evaluation’s point of view, between V. vinifera and V. amurensis based breeding lines from legal aspects as well, between local and global varieties. There is no smaller controversial concerning of varieties bred from traditional breeding materials or from genetically modified plants, or in case of bio wine, in other words organic wines versus wines representing traditional wine quality, or integrated and bio technology in grape growing. Seldom the technical terms are not quite clear, or at least used in different ways and of course these conflicts can complicate the international programs. The conference really has tall orders. Everyone can say the other fields have problems; turning points and conflicts like these as well, but please stop for a moment before producing any answers too suddenly. The grape-vine breeding has more complex situation. Not only because the grape-vine breeding process including state certificate takes at least more than a decade, and not only because the market evaluation in the practice needs an other long term period, but because this science is expected to adopt, to understand market tendencies and to have strong impact on future’s vineyard varieties by way of its activity at present. To control something in the future, what I should harmonise now it is really complex task to achieve a sensitive balance between the present and the future, and not any single researchers seems to be able to match this goal. From this aspect quite understandable the importance of research teams are about to increase recently. For the Hungarians the conference is not only a good opportunity but also an obligatory duty for the future to develop, to catch up with the international standards and tendencies, and to co-operate with international research centres. The conference also leads our attention towards the importance of constant searching for scientific answers of fundamental questions of the subject. The Carpathian basin is an excellent place for grape-vine breeding according to several experts, and it is really for providing varied gen sources can be used. Perhaps it has happened not by chance that in the fields of root-stock breeding, clone selection, table and wine grape breeding Hungary has deserved international appreciation and these results have been proved to be very influential in more cases. In fact the Hungarian grape-vine breeders have received not only the professional applauses, but they have gained privileged places at the centre of public and political attention. It may be known that so may success and results might be misleading if there is no guideline and order in general. The past results may turn out to be negative if there is any single person who can believe it can be enough for the futures’ success. What we should work fro again, and most probably in different way. The dedicated issue of IJHS magazine can add something extra to the VIII. International Conference on Grape-Vine Breeding and Genetics, if we can introduce the Hungarian grape-vine breeding history, traditions and the never fading breeders in more complex way than ever before. The articles may give help to many colleagues to understand what we call Hungarian grape-vine breeding and genetics, to know what Hungarian wine sector has already received from this discipline and what the Hungarian grape growers expect in the future from the ever glory demanding grapevine breeders. Botos Ernö Péter Ph.D. director President of the Organization Committee Member of IJHS Editoral Board FOREWORD This volume of Acta Horticulturae is the Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Grape Genetics and Breeding. Invited and keynote speakers and selected authors of offered oral papers and posters had the opportunity to submit their manuscripts for publication in this volume of the series Acta Horticulturae. Submitted manuscripts were reviewed by the Editors and amended according to the referee suggestions prior to acceptance. The ISHS acknowledges the cooperation received from the Editors on reviewing the manuscripts which was a significant contribution to the overall quality of the publication. The ISHS Board of Directors SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION OF THE VIIITH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GRAPE GENETICS AND BREEDING - KECSKEMET, HUNGARY It is a pleasure to commence with congratulations to the conference organizers Dr. Peter Botos and Dr. Edit Hajdu for the excellent arrangements they have made for the meeting. They developed a program and chose avenue that enabled us to meet with both old and new-found colleagues in a relaxed and congenial atmosphere making the conference both an educational and an enjoyable social event. We have had the opportunity to hear some 65 oral presentations and to view over 80 poster papers covering many aspects of grapevine breeding and genetics. A feature of this conference is that the contributions have come about equally from both male and female authors, which is a good thing. Much work is in progress and there is real scientific strength with in the group whose endeavors have as a final objective the breeding of better grapevines. As Professor Gerhard Alleweldt pointed out in his opening remarks we have developed from a small highly specialized group of scientists and technologists who first began to meet some 30 years ago to exchange ideas and information. There are already plans to meet again at Udine in Italy in four years time, and given the rapid progress that is being made in this subject area,there may be a need to meet at closer intervals in future years. Both the oral and poster presentations provided abundant evidence that researchers in many countries see breeding and genetic manipulation as the appropriate way to adapt grapevines to the many different environments in which they are now grown. A requirement in areas where winter temperatures can fall below –24şC is tolerance to bud freezing . This characteristic is required for locations in east-Europe and in parts of the USA and Canada and is available in some of the older hybrids of European and North American grapes. For this work further crosses involving highly cold tolerant germplasm of Chinese Vitis sp would appear to be a priority .A number of the contributions report work aimed at developing both an understanding of, and vines that are resistant to, the fungal diseases powdery and downy mildew. These diseases are currently one of the major limitations to growing Vitis vinifera varieties in many areas of the world. Some resistant varieties are already available from interspecies breeding, while transformation studies involving DNA from Muscadine grapes aims to incorporate these resistances into the so called noble varieties that dominate the world wine industry. Other communications were concerned with developing new seedless varieties using embryo rescue, conventional hybridization and marker-assisted breeding. A conclusion from this conference is that two research areas that engaged much of your attention at earlier meetings no longer present problems. I refer here to embryo-genesis, the regeneration of grapevines from single cells which is an essential prerequisite for genetic transformation studies, and vector systems. It is clear that grapevines now join the list of plants that can be successfully regenerated from cultures of a range of tissues and transformed using either projectile (biolistic),systems or Agrobacterium species. The amount of molecular work directed towards the genetic improvement of Vitis species is now massive. Many different aspects of the genome are under intense investigation with much of the work involving international cooperation between scientists from the major grape growing countries of the world. A multitude of acronyms are used to describe mainly the methods and techniques used in molecular biology. They form a jargon that borders on a “new” language, which is in danger of preventing molecular researchers from being able to directly communicate with cooperating breeders and plant physiologists. SSR’s (Simple Sequence Repeats) combined with computer assisted ampelography have become the accepted way to correctly identify grape vine varieties. Both UPOV (Union for the Protection of Varieties), and the EC (European Union ) have accepted the vital role of SSR’s in validating both old and new grapevine varieties. A number of papers were concerned with the correct identity of varieties in the older vineyard areas of Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Hungary and even the USA. These tools are now widely available and vine breeders can use them to correctly identify the names of the parents they use in crosses. Much of the current molecular work seeks to identify the parts of the genome of a range of Vitis species that code for identifiable and desirable plant and fruit characteristics. DNA studies applied to hybrids generated from parents with desirable features form the basis of marker- assisted breeding. This offers the prospect of greatly reducing the time taken to identify hybrids carrying specific genes. Marker assisted breeding is seen as an alternate route to grapevine improvement that in long term may yet rival transformation. A development, discussed at the conference was the proposal to form an International Grape-Vine Genome Working Group to sequence the entire genome of Vitis vinifera together with interesting sequences from other Vitis species. Bearing in mind the numbers of young scientists working on the molecular biology of grapevines this is seen as a logical step, which should lead to faster progress. However such a group might be seen as a rich scientists club when comparisons are made with the groups undertaking international genome studies of important food crops such as rice, barley, maize and wheat. A number of papers and posters were concerned with clones, which are of great importance in viticulture, but still largely defy identification by molecular methods Although there are some indications that AFLP’s can successfully separate some clones. A discussion ensued on the overlap between varietal variation and clonal differences. It seems clear that some clonal differences have a viral basis and others are genetic mutations that are not easy to identify. Also some of our varieties such as the Pinot’s may well have a polyclonal origin. Indications were given that vigorous clones may require careful management. It was also suggested that clones are best defined by their effects on wine quality. A number of papers were concerned with the development of disease resistance by transformation involving the direct insertion of DNA (both genes and promoters) into grapevines. Considerable effort has been directed towards obtaining the DNA segments that confer resistance to both powdery and downy mildew, to the fan-leaf virus group, to Crown Gall and more recently to Pierce’s disease. Other workers have sought “genes” that affect grape berry quality and specific physiological characteristics. Halting and somewhat secret progress is being made in this area which is beset by the problem of consumer acceptance. Although genetic engineering is not in itself a particularly long process, the testing of the subsequent new variety (?) or clones (?) is. It was pointed out that new varieties that have arisen by breeding took a minimum of 20 years to be fully tested and accepted into commercial production. A similar time scale is envisaged for genetically modified grapevines. The comment was offered that part of the problem of consumers not accepting transformed crops, including grapevines, resides in the fact that much of the current effort has been directed towards making the crop easier to grow. The crop improvement has been for growers and not for the direct benefit of consumers. It is possible that consumers may be inclined to accept new seed-less grape varieties developed by transformation because they can directly see the results of the work. Although the presentations to this conference made it clear that both grape vine breeding and grapevine genetics are moving ahead at a rapid rate the grape vine has some very challenging features. These reside in it’s response to the environment in which the plant is grown. The quality of the wine from grape vines is influenced not only by the genetics of the vine but also by the “terroir”. There is perhaps no other plant where the array of fruit constituents are influenced to such a large extent by the growing conditions. The rootstock , the soil and the climate interact with the genome of the variety to give many different end results. These are possibly some of the challenges for our next conference? Dr. J.V. Possingham International Society for Horticultural Science Adelaide Australia. | |
