Evaluation of Seed and Fruit Characteristics of Muscadine Grape

Abstract

Muscadine grape (Vitis rotundilofiaMichx.), is a unique fruit grown in the southern United States, used mostly for the production of juice, jams and jellies. There is potential for breeding programs to focus on advancing muscadine characteristics as a fresh-market fruit. Seventeen genotypes of muscadine grapes were evaluated in 2013, and measurements of critical fresh-market attributes (seed characteristics, berry attributes and percent wet stem scar) were evaluated. Breeding selection AM 28 and 'Supreme' had the highest berry weight (15.0 g) and volume (37.3 and 36.3 cm 3, respectively), while AM 03 had the lowest berry weight (6.7 g) and AM 15 had the lowest berry volume (22.8 cm 3). Both berry weight and berry volume were positively correlated with percent wet stem scar (r = 0.53), which has not been previously reported in muscadine. The genotype AM 28 also had the highest individual seed weight (0.10 g), while AM 02 and AM 03 had the lowest individual seed weight (0.05 g), and berry weight and seed weight were positively correlated (r = 0.61). Individual seed number ranged from 2.9 to 4.5, and seed volume ranged from 0.88 to 1.54 cm 3. Percent wet stem scar ranged from 20.1 to 69.5%. For several traits evaluated, muscadine breeding selections performed better than the cultivars studied, potentially showing that improvements in muscadine are being made through crossing and selection. This information can be further used by muscadine breeders in evaluating traits for improvement along with parent selection resulting in new cultivar development.