Studies on the Fragmented Shoot Apex of Grapevine: IV. SEPARATION OF PHENOTYPES IN A PERICLINAL CHIMERA IN VITRO

Adventitious shoots were induced on apical fragments of thegrapevine, cv. Meunier, a presumptive periclinal chimera. Thiscultivar resembles Pinot noir in essential characteristics,but is phenotypically distinguishable by the dense white matof hairs on the apex and expanding leaves (tomentose phenotype).Plants derived from apical culture were of three types: (i)phenotypically resembling Meunier, (ii) bearing tomentose leaveswith comparatively hairless sectors, and (iii) with completelynon-tomentose shoots phenotypically similar to Pinot noir. These results establish that adventitious buds of grapevineproduced by this method are multicellular in origin and arenot derived from single cells. Furthermore, it is concludedthat fragmented shoot apex culture of grapevine periclinal chimerasdisturbs the integrity of apical tissue allowing separationof component genotypes. Fragmented apex culture of such chimerasis not recommended where trueness-to-type is of prime importance.However, circumstances under which this technique may be usefullyapplied to separate chimeral genotypes are discussed. Key words: Vitis vinifera, Grapevine, In vitro, Chimera separation