Evidence of a secondary grapevine domestication centre detected by SSR analysis

Abstract

The origin of the grapevine was investigated with archaeobotanical, cultural and historical data. A primary domestication centre was located in the Near East region but there is no agreement on the existence or role of secondary domestication centres. In this work, PCR-based microsatellite analysis has been applied to study the origin of some Italian cultivated grapevines from in situ direct domestication of the wild autoctonous grapevine. Three different Italian locations in Grosseto, Cosenza and Nuoro were identified for this study, and domesticated grapevine as well as wild local accessions growing in these location, were analysed by SSR markers. Cluster analysis performed on Cosenza and Grosseto samples showed a high value of genetic distance between domesticated and wild accessions. On the contrary two cultivars (Bovale Murru and Bovale Muristellu) recovered in Nuoro (in the Sardinia island) were very close to some wild varieties. This suggests that the latter two cultivars may have originated from wild grapevines and consequently that in this location a secondary grapevine domestication event occurred. Six Lambrusco varieties were also included in this analysis as ancient putative ancestors of the cultivated grapevines. The molecular analysis excluded this hypothesis and suggest Lambrusco as an independent Vitis taxon.

Genetic structure and domestication history of the grape

“…S2). These results are in agreement with previous studies showing no reduction in genetic diversity in vinifera compared with its wild ancestor (22,23,25,26) and with the relatively minor changes in morphology observed between sylvestris and vinifera (11). A recent study found a significant increase in LD in vinifera compared with sylvestris using 36 microsatellites, however (26).…”

“…4 and Table 1). Grape growing and winemaking then expanded westward toward Europe, but the degree to which local wild sylvestris from Western Europe contributed genetically to Western European vinifera cultivars remains a contentious issue (1,(22)(23)(24). Our results, based on Fst (Table 1), PCA (Fig.…”

Genetic diversity in portuguese native Vitis vinifera L. ssp. vinifera and ssp. sylvestris

“…The results obtained reinforced the idea of Western Europe as one of the domestication centres for grapevines (Grassi et al 2003, Arroyo-Garcia et al 2006, with contributions from the Eastern gene pool (Imazio et al 2006). The observed genetic structure is a starting point to clarify the high number of native cultivars from Portugal, and it reinforces their probable origins on the Iberian Peninsula.…”

Genotyping of Vitis vinifera L. within the Slovak national collection of genetic resources

“…Nevertheless, specific soil and climatic conditions in new regions where grapevine began to grow influenced and extended its genetic variation. Secondary domestication events, such as mutations, occurred [1] to create new genetic variants within clones derived from vegetatively propagated single plants [2]. Consequently, this process was frequently associated with synonymies and homonymies in the names of cultivars and clones.…”