Phenotyping tools for genetic improvement of table grapes in Chile

Abstract

Although Chile is the world leader for table-grape export by volume, the renewal of table-grape cultivars has just recently taken off. Among these, 'Maylen' ('Iniagrape-One'), a mid-season black cultivar from the Chilean Breeding Program at INIA, stands out for its flavor and excellent postharvest life. In order to accelerate the development of new table-grape cultivars under local conditions, we have developed two software tools to improve the phenotyping of fruit quality characteristics either in the laboratory or in the field. The first of these tools, Vinetracker, is a smartphone application that replaces the use of field blocks: it combines a cloud-located database of the breeding program with the mobile network capacity to allow simultaneous evaluation of vine or fruit phenotypes, resulting in the reduction of cost, time and involuntary errors. It also allows the user to filter and consult data in real time. The second of these tools, Berry Analyzer, is a digital image-analysis tool for fruit phenotyping that aims at fast retrieval of information from berries, such as the polar and equatorial diameters, shape and color, in a small fraction of the time needed in comparison with standard tools or image software that requires human intervention.