Italian Variety Club, a research and innovation network for the genetic improvement of table grapes

The ambitious idea for the development of new tablegrape seedless varieties, suitable for growing in the Mediterranean basin and highly competitive on the international markets, has recently led to the foundation (in 2015) of the Italian Variety Club (IVC) a network of 17 enterprises and 2 research Institutions in Southern Italy. This synergic collaboration among private companies and researchers aims to develop and transfer varietal and technical innovation to the growers and to strengthen the Italian table grape supply chain merging high quality products and sustainable agriculture. The breeding program is organized in different interconnected activities such as: "seed x seedless" varieties and "seedless x seedless" varieties controlled crosses, involving Apulian traditional genotypes and élite cultivars; F1seedling production with molecular marker assisted selection (MAS) for an early identification of seedless genotypes; in vitro embryo culture; plant evaluation under field conditions. In the coming years the activities of varietal description and official registration, Patent protection, and establishment of stock fields will be initiated. As result of the 3-year activities, the progenies of 75 "seed x seedless" varieties crosses, 28 "seedless x seedless" varieties crosses and 12 crosses involving germplasm with resistance traits have been obtained and analysed and the field evaluation begun. With regard to progenies derived from "seedless x seedless" varieties crosses, the average embryogenesis percentages (no. of germinated embryos/no. of cultivated ovules) was about 8-9%, varying according to the parents used. Following the extensive use of MAS about 40% of each "seed x seedless" varieties progeny carried allele associated to seedless locus. Actually about 6,000 new genotypes are grown in the first selection field, while further 6,000 seedless plants are going to be planted within 2018.