Grapevine Diversity and Genetic Relationships in Northeast Portugal Old Vineyards

Abstract

More than 100 grapevine varieties are registered as suitable for wine production in “Douro” and “Trás-os-Montes” Protected Designations of Origin regions; however, only a few are actually used for winemaking. The identification of varieties cultivated in past times can be an important step to take advantage of all the potential of these regions grape biodiversity. The conservation of the vanishing genetic resources boosts greater product diversification, and it can be considered strategic in the valorisation of these wine regions. Hence, one goal of the present study was to prospect and characterise, through molecular markers, 310 plants of 11 old vineyards that constitute a broad representation of the grape genetic patrimony of “Douro” and “Trás-os-Montes” wine regions; 280 samples, grouped into 52 distinct known varieties, were identified through comparison of their genetic profiles generated via 6 nuclear SSR and 43 informative SNP loci amplification; the remaining 30 samples, accounting for 13 different genotypes, did not match with any profile in the consulted databases and were considered as new genotypes. This study also aimed at evaluating the population structure among the 65 non-redundant genotypes identified, which were grouped into two ancestral genetic groups. The mean probability of identity values of 0.072 and 0.510 (for the 6 SSR and 226 SNP sets, respectively) were determined. Minor differences were observed between frequencies of chlorotypes A and D within the non-redundant genotypes studied. Twenty-seven pedigrees were confirmed and nine new trios were established. Ancestors of eight genotypes remain unknown.

Exploring genetic diversity and population structure of a large grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) germplasm collection in Türkiye

“…( Žulj Mihaljević et al., 2020 ) and D’Onofrio ( D’Onofrio, 2020 ). In line with our study, the expected heterozygosity value obtained from biallelic SNP markers ( Ghaffari et al., 2014 ; De Lorenzis et al., 2019 ; Cunha et al., 2020 ) was lower than that of the studies which used multiallelic markers such as SSRs ( Augusto et al., 2021 ; Péros et al., 2021 ; Cretazzo et al., 2022 ).…”

Molecular characterisation of the current cultivars of <i>Vitis vinifera</i> L. in Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain) reveals nine individuals which correspond to eight new varieties and two new sports

“…In this case, given a large number of varieties, coordinates 1 and 2 only explain 5.74 % and 3.92 % of the general variance for 2K + IC + LNZ. These values are quite low, but other studies have obtained similar results (Myles et al, 2011;Emanuelli et al, 2013;Augusto et al, 2021). In any case, this figure shows how all the local varieties from LNZ are located on the left hand side of the graph, the majority being in the upper quadrant.…”

Biotechnologies and Strategies for Grapevine Improvement

“…In recent years, SNP markers have also gained high popularity for evaluating allelic variations throughout grapevine genomes and dissecting complex traits via QTL (quantitative trait loci) for breeding programs [63,64]. SNPs are highly abundant across plant genomes and offer higher reproducibility than microsatellite data, facilitating the integration and interpretation of genotyping data throughout grape gene banks and databases [65,66]. The rise of NGS and resequencing techniques have facilitated the release of an extensive number of SNPs [31,67] and the development of reliable platforms, such as VitisGDB (the multifunctional database for grapevine breeding and genetics), for comparing and mining Vitis genomic information [68].…”