From the cradle of grapevine domestication: molecular overview and description of Georgian grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) germplasm

Abstract

Historical information and archaeological and\ud palaeobotanical findings point Georgia, in the South\ud Caucasus, as a cradle for grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) domestication\ud from its wild form (V. vinifera silvestris Beck.) and\ud subsequent selection and development of varieties with characters\ud suitable for human consumption. The hypothesis of\ud Georgia being a center of domestication, combined with its\ud distance from western countries and the importance of its\ud viticulture and wine production, make Georgian grape\ud germplasm particularly interesting to be investigated under\ud the genetic point of view. Twenty nuclear microsatellite loci\ud were used to genotype 112 Georgian grapevine accessions (V.\ud vinifera sativa Beck.) fromgermplasm collections and 18 from\ud spontaneous growing plants (V. vinifera silvestris Beck.) found\ud in wild conditions and to compare them to a large international\ud cultivar collection in France. Data analysis shows that\ud Georgian grapevine germplasm has maintained distinctive\ud traits despite arrival of international, foreign varieties and still\ud conserve characteristics of local breeding linked to traditional\ud wine production regions of the country. Results have identified\ud alleles, overall loci, well represented in the Georgian germplasm\ud (cultivated and wild) and absent or poorly represented in\ud other countries, highlighting uniqueness and originality of\ud traits of this viticulture. Moreover, the search for relationships\ud between Georgian and foreign viticulture has evidenced few\ud interesting cases linking the Georgian varieties with Western\ud European ones and with neighboring Caucasian countries,\ud helping to identify the real place of origin in some doubtful\ud cases. In addition, populations or sparse individuals of wild\ud grapevine still preserved in the Georgian natural environments\ud present smaller genetic distances with local cultivars than in\ud other European regions. Principal component analysis (PCA)\ud has also identified special overlapping of the wild compartment\ud with some cultivated varieties. This work provides a\ud highly significant new contribution to applied aspects of\ud Georgian grapevine genetic resources management and use.\ud Uniqueness of the Georgian cultivated grapevine gene pool\ud together with its close relatedness with the wild compartment\ud makes this country a good candidate to address questions\ud regarding domestication and grapevine genetic resource\ud conservatio

Introgression Among Cultivated and Wild Grapevine in Tuscany

“…Therefore, although a higher level of heterozygosity is expected in sylvestris because of its obligate out-crossing nature compared to sativa, the results indicate a lower level of diversity in sylvestris than sativa, and a high level of genetic relationship among individuals from the same wild populations. This is in agreement with other studies which highlight that man-made and natural geographical barriers can also lead to the isolation of wild populations in their native habitat, and could lead to significant inbreeding, reduced gene flow within and among different geographic groups (Bacilieri et al, 2013;Emanuelli et al, 2013;Imazio et al, 2013;Riaz et al, 2018).…”

Study of genetic variability in Vitis vinifera L. germplasm by high-throughput Vitis18kSNP array: the case of Georgian genetic resources

“…From the primary domestication areas, the grapevine spread to neighbouring regions and followed different pathways and successive waves firstly towards Mesopotamia, East Mediterranean Basin, North Africa, Southern Balkans and Aegean Region; secondly towards Sicily, Southern Italy, France and Spain; and finally towards Central Europe, mainly through the main trade routes of Rhine, Rhone and Danube rivers [ 6 ]. In agreement with these general dispersal pathways, many studies of grapevine genetic diversity supported the hypothesis of secondary domestication centres in the Mediterranean area, considering the crucial role of the Near East in grapevine domestication, and the introgression processes, from wild compartment of the secondary centres of domestication, in the cultivated germplasm, as complementary sources of genetic diversity in the domesticated gene pool [ 8 - 12 ].…”

Genetic characterization of some wild grape populations (Vitis viniferasubsp.sylvestris) of Zagros mountains (Iran) to indentify a conservation strategy

“…Over the past few centuries, historical evidence combined with ampelographic data has frequently been used to characterize grape germplasm and to investigate the origin and relationships among wild and cultivated individuals (Labra et al, 2002;Barth et al, 2009;Ocete et al, 2011). This marker set has also been used to investigate the evolution of wild grape populations, the gene flow among different areas, and the response of wild accessions to environmental impacts and human activities (De Mattia et al, 2008;Ergül et al, 2011;Imazio et al, 2013). The EU-PROJECT GENRES CT96 NO81 has identified a universal set of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers useful for univocally distinguishing each cultivar (This and Dettweiler, 2003).…”