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| Authors: | V. Colova-Tsolova, J. Lu, A. Perl |
| Keywords: | somatic embryogenesis, genetic transformation, polyploid, Vitis, Muscadinia |
Abstract:
The common muscadine grape, Vitis (Muscadinia) rotundifolia Michx., is native to the southeastern United States and has been cultivated for more than 400 years.
Although the current production of this species is relatively small, there is tremendous opportunity for commercial growth based on increasing consumer interest in healthier diets and changing lifestyle.
The discovery of high levels of anti-oxidant compounds in muscadine juices and wines has brought more attention to the muscadine grape, not only as an alternative cash value crop for the southeast US, but also as a new health food.
Seedless muscadine grapes are likely to become very important for the regional small fruit industry.
Due to genetic incongruity and hybrid infertility between muscadine grapes and other cultivars, little progress has been made with the introgression of the seedlessness trait from vinifera grapes into the muscadine grapes using sexual hybridization.
In light of these limitations, an efficient strategy to transfer individual traits as single genes into an already available and desirable genetic background, with minimum disturbance to the original genome using DNA recombinant technology is desirable.
The implementation and successful commercialization of genetically improved grape cultivars will only be realized if a number of obstacles, both scientific and otherwise can be overcome.
Additionally, avoiding the use of antibiotic resistance genes as selective markers may become crucial for the possible release of the genetically modified crop.
This study was designed to produce a new generation of genetically tailored seedless muscadine grapes that will provide biosafety guarantees and meet certain legal criteria for field release and commercialization.
The gene conferring seedlessness has been transferred into the muscadine cultivar ‘Fry’ and 17 independent transgenic clones are under greenhouse evaluation.
The most important outcomes of this research were: the genetic transformation of muscadine grape was accomplished and the feasibility of a gene transfer approach for genetic improvement of muscadine grape has been proven.
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