Dissecting the genetic architecture of root-related traits in a grafted wild Vitis berlandieri population for grapevine rootstock breeding

In woody perennial plants, quantitative genetics and association studies remain scarce for root-related traits, due to the time required to obtain mature plants and the complexity of phenotyping. In grapevine, a grafted cultivated plant, most of the rootstocks used are hybrids between American Vitis species (V. rupestris, V. riparia, and V. berlandieri). In this study, we used a wild population of an American Vitis species (V. berlandieri) to analyze the genetic architecture of the root-related traits of rootstocks in a grafted context. We studied a population consisting of 211 genotypes, with one to five replicates each (n = 846 individuals), plus four commercial rootstocks as control genotypes (110R, 5BB, Börner, and SO4). After two independent years of experimentation, the best linear unbiased estimates method revealed root-related traits with a moderate-to-high heritability (0.36–0.82) and coefficient of genetic variation (0.15–0.45). A genome-wide association study was performed with the BLINK model, leading to the detection of 11 QTL associated with four root-related traits (one QTL was associated with the total number of roots, four were associated with the number of small roots (< 1 mm in diameter), two were associated with the number of medium-sized roots (1 mm < diameter < 2 mm), and four were associated with mean diameter) accounting for up to 25.1% of the variance. Three genotypes were found to have better root-related trait performances than the commercial rootstocks and therefore constitute possible new candidates for use in grapevine rootstock breeding programs.