Toward Marker Assisted Selection for Fungal Disease Resistance in Grapevine

Abstract

Grapevine is a crop of major economic importance in Bulgaria where viticulture and winemaking have been traditional since ancient times. Fungal diseases, which severely affect the yield, the cost and the quality of the grapevine production, are currently controlled by hard fungicidal treatments. The development of high quality grapevine cultivars with increased resistance towards main fungal pathogens through MAS is a proper way to reduce both the cost of grapevine production and the environmental risk. The present mini review is focused on the current knowledge concerning genetic factors related to fungal disease resistance in grapevine. It provides information on QTLs/markers for fungal disease resistance, as well as on homologues of the resistance related genes, identified in genetic and physical maps, and in the grape genome sequence. Further we present the research activities in AgroBioInstitute aimed at the establishment of the MAS for fungal disease resistance in grapevine trough utilizing Bulgarian grapevine genetic resources. The research program related to the identification of QTLs, molecular and metabolite markers for fungal disease resistance, as well as the selection of grapevine breeding lines bearing resistance to downy mildew and powdery mildew, is outlined. The program was established in the frame the NSF funded project DO02–105 “Centre for sustainable development of plant and animal genomics “.