Characterization of somatic variants differing in seed content

Seedlessness is an important objective in grape breeding programs being highly appreciated by consumers. Substantial advances in the comprehension of the molecular underlying mechanisms have been achieved. However, most studies inspected the stenospermocarpic variety Sultanine, whereas different sources of seedlessness have been much less investigated. With the aim of providing additional insights into the regulation of seed formation and develop testable candidate gene hypotheses, we explored grapevine germplasm collections searching for clones with contrasting seed content. In total, we identified nine variant pairs that differ only in those characteristics related to the absence/presence of seeds while showing the same microsatellite profile. Here we report their phenotypic and genotypic characterization, with special emphasis on Sangiovese and its seedless variant, for which we previously performed a comprehensive transcriptomic comparison.