Project Number: 5306-21000-018-02
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Apr 26, 2004
End Date: Feb 28, 2009

Objective:
This specific cooperative agreement has three important objectives: 1. To fingerprint and assess genetic diversity and relationships within and among elite germplasm, advanced selections, and officially released cultivars of grape, stonefruits, and nut crops maintained as virus-tested foundation stocks at the Foundation Plant Services (FPS), University of California, Davis. 2. To validate genetic fingerprints of grape germplasm maintained at the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR), Davis by comparing them with the standard Vitis microsatellite fingerprint database maintained at the FPS. 3. Develop a registry of information on identity, disease testing status, characterization and acquistion sources of virtually all grape varieties and clones available with the United States. Establish and publicize the online registry as a user-friendly reference. Develop a plan for routinely updating the information to maintain relevance and value.

Approach:
Objective 1: Microsatellite and AFLP markers will be used to fingerprint foundation stocks of fruit and nut crops maintained at the FPS facility. Assays including fingerprinting activities will be performed at the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository's laboratory in collaboration with the repository's geneticist. Genescan and genotyper analyses will be performed on the raw microsatellite and AFLP data assembled by the data collection software used with the ABI Prism 310 and 3100 genetic analyzers. The data thus generated will be added to the GRIN database and also be used along with data from the germplasm maintained at the repository to analyze for the overall genetic diversity and differentiation within and among different gene pools. Objective 2: The microsatellite fingerprint data generated on the Vitis collection maintained at the NCGR will be compared with the standard fingerprint database of Vitis maintained at the FPS. A standard set of grape cultivars will be included in all genetic analyzer runs to minimize variation among runs and analyses. Genotyper results are verified for the accuracy of allele calling or binning of each allele in the samples to establish the identity of each allele and genotype. The resultant data is compared with the standard grape fingerprint database maintained at the FPS. Data across genotypes and runs are merged into a spreadsheet format ready for analyses. Objective 3: A full time staff member at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository will be dedicated to the development of the National Grape Registry (NGR). The staff member will collect and assemble variety information, develop the registry framework, develop an NGR website, and post variety information to that website. The registry will be posted on-line as a searchable, relational data set, using Microsoft Access or Oracle as the underlying software. Guidance on software selection and the website structure will be actively sought from diverse experts by the library scientist/database manager. We are committed to developing an extremely user-friendly site, which will be kept up to date through frequent revisions. Invitations for participation and data from grape collections and publicity regarding availability of these data will be made semiannually or annually through a wide array of relevant venues. Documents SCA with UC Davis. Formerly 5306-21000-015-06S (8/08.)