Chimeras in Merlot grapevine revealed by phased assembly.

Chimerism is the phenomenon when several genotypes coexist in a single individual. Used to understand plant ontogenesis they also have been valorised through new cultivar breeding. Viticulture has been taking economic advantage out of chimeras when the variant induced an important modification of wine type such as berry skin colour. Crucial agronomic characters may also be impacted by chimeras that aren't identified yet. Periclinal chimera where the variant has entirely colonised a cell layer is the most stable and can be propagated through cuttings. In grapevine, leaves are derived from both meristem layers, L1 and L2. However, lateral roots are formed from the L2 cell layer only. Thus, comparing DNA sequences of roots and leaves allows chimera detection. In this study we used new generation Hifi long reads sequencing, recent bioinformatics tools and trio-binning with parental sequences to detect periclinal chimeras on 'Merlot' grapevine cultivar. Sequencing of cv. 'Magdeleine Noire des Charentes' and 'Cabernet Franc', the parents of cv. 'Merlot', allowed haplotype resolved assembly. Pseudomolecules were built with a total of 33 to 47 contigs and in few occasions a unique contig for one chromosome. This high resolution allowed haplotype comparison. Annotation was transferred from PN40024 VCost.v3 to all pseudomolecules. After strong selection of variants, 51 and 53 'Merlot' specific periclinal chimeras were found on the Merlot-haplotype-CF and Merlot-haplotype-MG respectively, 9 and 7 been located in a coding region. A subset of positions was analysed using Molecular Inversion Probes (MIPseq) and 69% were unambiguously validated, 25% are doubtful because of technological noise or weak depth and 6% invalidated. These results open new perspectives on chimera detection as an important resource to improve cultivars through clonal selection or breeding.

High throughput analysis of grape genetic diversity as a tool for germplasm collection management.

Using 20 SSR markers well scattered across the 19 grape chromosomes, we analyzed 4,370 accessions of the INRA grape repository at Vassal, mostly cultivars of Vitis vinifera subsp. sativa (3,727), but also accessions of V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris (80), interspecific hybrids (364), and rootstocks (199). The analysis revealed 2,836 SSR single profiles: 2,323 sativa cultivars, 72 wild individuals (sylvestris), 306 interspecific hybrids, and 135 rootstocks, corresponding to 2,739 different cultivars in all. A total of 524 alleles were detected, with a mean of 26.20 alleles per locus. For the 2,323 cultivars of V. vinifera, 338 alleles were detected with a mean of 16.9 alleles per locus. The mean genetic diversity (GDI) was 0.797 and the level of heterozygosity was 0.76, with broad variation from 0.20 to 1. Interspecific hybrids and rootstocks were more heterozygous and more diverse (GDI = 0.839 and 0.865, respectively) than V. vinifera cultivars (GDI = 0.769), Vitis vinifera subsp. sylvestris being the least divergent with GDI = 0.708. Principal coordinates analysis distinguished the four groups. Slight clonal polymorphism was detected. The limit between clonal variation and cultivar polymorphism was set at four allelic differences out of 40. SSR markers were useful as a complementary tool to traditional ampelography for cultivar identification. Finally, a set of nine SSR markers was defined that was sufficient to distinguish 99.8% of the analyzed accessions. This set is suitable for routine characterization and will be valuable for germplasm management.

Linkage disequilibrium in wild French grapevine, Vitis vinifera L. subsp. silvestris.

Association mapping based on linkage disequilibrium (LD) can provide high resolution for whole-genome mapping of genes underlying phenotypic variation. This field has received considerable attention over the last decade. We present here the first characterization of LD in wild French grapevine, Vitis vinifera L. subsp. silvestris. To assess the pattern and extent of LD, we used a sample of 85 plants from southern France and 36 microsatellite markers distributed over 5 linkage groups. LD was evaluated with independence tests and multiallelic r(2), using both unphased genotypic data and reconstructed haplotypic data. LD decayed rapidly, with r(2) values decreasing to 0.1 within 2.7 cM for genotypic data and within 1.4 cM for haplotypic data. Compared to the results of a previous study on cultivated grapevine subsp. sativa, where significant LD was found up to 16.8 cM, LD in subsp. silvestris was no longer significant past 1.4 cM. LD was therefore 12 times further extended in cultivated than wild grapevine, even though LD in wild grapevine seemed to extend slightly further than in wild relatives of other crops. Domestication bottlenecks and vegetative propagation are the primary factors responsible for this difference between cultivated and wild grapevine. The rapid decay of LD observed in this study seems promising for future association mapping studies of functional variation in wild V. vinifera grapevine.

An integrated SSR map of grapevine based on five mapping populations.

A grapevine (mainly Vitis vinifera L., 2n = 38) composite genetic map was constructed with CarthaGene using segregation data from five full-sib populations of 46, 95, 114, 139 and 153 individuals, to determine the relative position of a large set of molecular markers. This consensus map comprised 515 loci (502 SSRs and 13 other type PCR-based markers), amplified using 439 primer pairs (426 SSRs and 13 others) with 50.1% common markers shared by at least two crosses. Out of all loci, 257, 85, 74, 69 and 30 were mapped in 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 individual mapping populations, respectively. Marker order was generally well conserved between maps of individual populations, with only a few significant differences in the recombination rate of marker pairs between two or more populations. The total length of the integrated map was 1,647 cM Kosambi covering 19 linkage groups, with a mean distance between neighbour loci of 3.3 cM. A framework-integrated map was also built, with marker order supported by a LOD of 2.0. It included 257 loci spanning 1,485 cM Kosambi with a mean inter-locus distance of 6.2 cM over 19 linkage groups. These integrated maps are the most comprehensive SSR-based maps available so far in grapevine and will serve either for choosing markers evenly scattered over the whole genome or for selecting markers that cover particular regions of interest. The framework map is also a useful starting point for the integration of the V. vinifera physical and genetic maps.

Development of a standard set of microsatellite reference alleles for identification of grape cultivars.

In order to investigate the comparability of microsatellite profiles obtained in different laboratories, ten partners in seven countries analyzed 46 grape cultivars at six loci (VVMD5, VVMD7, VVMD27, VVS2, VrZAG62, and VrZAG79). No effort was made to standardize equipment or protocols. Although some partners obtained very similar results, in other cases different absolute allele sizes and, sometimes, different relative allele sizes were obtained. A strategy for data comparison by means of reference to the alleles detected in well-known cultivars was proposed. For each marker, each allele was designated by a code based on the name of the reference cultivar carrying that allele. Thirty-three cultivars, representing from 13 to 23 alleles per marker, were chosen as references. After the raw data obtained by the different partners were coded, more than 97% of the data were in agreement. Minor discrepancies were attributed to errors, suboptimal amplification and visualization, and misscoring of heterozygous versus homozygous allele pairs. We have shown that coded microsatellite data produced in different laboratories with different protocols and conditions can be compared, and that it is suitable for the identification and SSR allele characterization of cultivars. It is proposed that the six markers employed here, already widely used, be adopted as a minimal standard marker set for future grapevine cultivar analyses, and that additional cultivars be characterized by means of the coded reference alleles presented here. The complete database is available at http://www.genres.de/eccdb/vitis/ Cuttings of the 33 reference cultivars are available on request from the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique Vassal collection (didier.vares@ensam.inra.fr).