Clonal Selection within Grapevine 'Askari' by Molecular Markers

Grapevine 'Askari' is one of the important seedless table grapes in Iran. In spite of its asexual propagation, morphological markers determined differences in some accessions of this cultivar, e. g., some accessions have hard empty seeds. However, others have soft seed traces. Some of these morphological factors are useful for economical value and breeding programs. In order to evaluate these differences in genetical level, this project was designed to identify genetic variability via SSR markers within accessions named as 'Askari' cultivar. In this study 42 accessions were selected and collected from different provinces of Iran. 8 highly polymorphic SSR primers (VVS2, VVMD7, VVMD14, VVMD25, VVMD27, VVMD36, vrZAG47 and vrZAG79) were used to compare accessions. Three loci (VVS2, VVMD36 and vrZAG79) showed polymorphism. The overall results of the SSR analysis detected 5 accessions (no. 21, 31, 44, 46 and 114) which were different from others. The present study confirmed, SSR markers can be useful for identifying intra-cultivar diversity. This work requires more study to define the relation between genetical differences and some important morphological traits.