STUDY OF ORIGIN OF CULTIVAR ‘CSABA GYÖNGYE’ (PEARL OF CSABA)

“Csaba gyöngye” (Pearl of Csaba) is the earliest ripening table grape cultivar in the Carpathian Basin, therefore its growing is not limited to Hungary, it is well-known and grown in every grape producing country of the world.
According to several authors “Csaba gyöngye” was produced by crossing Bronnerstraube with Muscat Ottonel produced by János Mathiász.
The seeds were presented to Adolf Stark, who was a great character of the first period of the Hungarian grape breeding and grew it in his garden in Békéscsaba.
According to an other version: it was serendipitously discovered in 1904 growing in a garden in Békéscsaba, so its origin is not known.
Because of this uncertainty about its “birth”, the rather oral than written history of its origin, molecular approach should help to clarify the exact parentage of this cultivar.
For this purpose RAPD and microsatellite analyses were applied with DNA templates isolated from the following cultivars: “Csaba gyöngye, Bronnerstraube, Muscat Ottonel, Heunisch weiss and Heunisch rot.
These latter two cultivars were used as not “suspicious” types for sake of comparison.
First 81 RAPD primers (OPERON and UBC) were tried for PCR amplification, 55 of them produced polymorphic pattern.
Parallel with RAPD analyses microsatellite primers – including four of the six microsatellite primers recommended by the GENRES CT96 No 81 EU project – were applied in order to reveal polymorphisms and identities among the above mentioned cultivars.
Based on the amplified DNA products showing polymorphism cluster analyses were carried out both for RAPD and microsatellite fragments.
A dendrogram was constructed based on the similarity matrix data by applying the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) cluster analysis using the SYN-TAX program package for PC Version 5.0. For the estimation of genetic distances between cultivars the Simple Matching coefficient and Jaccard index were used.
In case of RAPD data the least genetic distance was obtained between Csaba gyöngye and Muscat Ottonel (putative pollinator). Considering the dendrogram constructed by the Jaccards index: Csaba gyöngye, Muscat Ottonel clusters together.
Bronnerstraube forms one cluster with of Heunisch rot, and Heunisch weiss clusters to the subclusters of the other cultivars.
Dendrogram obtained with the same RAPD data but with Simple Matching Coefficient shows some differences: two main clusters are formed: the first consists of two subclusters: (a): Pearl of Csaba and Muscat Ottonel are in a common subcluster, to that (b) Bronnerstraube is joining.
The second main cluster is formed by Heunish weiss and Heunisch rot.
Further analyses – including more cultivars and new microsatelllites – are being carried out to explain the contradiction between the RAPD and microsatellite based results and to be able to prove the correct origin of Csaba gyöngye (Pearl of Csaba).

VIII International Conference on Grape Genetics and Breeding

P. Kozma, A. Balogh, E. Kiss, Z. Galli, T. Koncz, L. Heszky

Csaba gyöngye (Perle von Csaba, Perle de Csaba, Pearl of Csaba), Bronnerstraube. Heunisch rot, Heunisch weiss, RAPD, microsatellite and cluster analysis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2003.603.78