The inheritance of monoterpenes in hybrid populations of Vitis vinifera cultivars

Monoterpenes were the most abundant terpenes in grapes and contribute significantly to quality control in table and wine grapes. Most inheritance research of monoterpenes in grapes was focused on wine grapes, and inheritance analyses of monoterpenes in intraspecific hybrid populations of table grapes have been limited. In this study, the composition and content of volatile monoterpenes in the parents and progeny were analysed using the Vitis vinifera table grape varieties ‘Italia’ and ‘Tamina’ and the F1 generation in two consecutive years. 25 and 24 monoterpenes were detected in each of the ‘Italia’ and ‘Tamina’ parents by headspace solid phase microextraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS), while a total of 26 monoterpene compounds were identified in the progeny and subsequently quantified. We obtained phenotypic segregation ratios of the monoterpenes isolated in the progeny and found that the segregation of 4 monoterpenes, cis-Isogeraniol, neral, linalool oxide pyranoside and cis-Rose oxide, in the progeny was consistent with Mendelian inheritance. A significant high frequency distribution of most monoterpenes was found in the region of low concentration values, and the proportion of inheritance contributing to the phenotypic total variance of the population was calculated by generalised heritability. In addition, we found significant positive correlations between most monoterpenes and negative correlations between individual monoterpenes. The results will help to understand the heredity law of grape monoterpene formation in hybrid populations, as well as provide some theoretical enlightment for grape breeding and quality enhancement.