Evolution and history of grapevine (Vitis vinifera) under domestication: new morphometric perspectives to understand seed domestication syndrome and reveal origins of ancient European cultivars

Abstract

Significant relationships between seed shape and taxonomic status, geographical origin (country or region) of accessions and parentage of varieties are highlighted, as previously noted based on genetic approaches. The combination of the analysis of modern reference material and well-preserved archaeological seeds provides original data about the history of ancient cultivated forms, some of them morphologically close to the current 'Clairette' and 'Mondeuse blanche' cultivars. Archaeobiological records seem to confirm the complexity of human contact, exchanges and migrations which spread grapevine cultivation in Europe and in Mediterranean areas, and argue in favour of the existence of local domestication in the Languedoc (southern France) region during Antiquity.

Characterization of the largest relic Eurasian wild grapevine reservoir in Southern Iberian Peninsula

“…Only female plants had berries, like in the case of the Spanish populations (Ocete et al, 1999). Their seed typologies are close to the wild grapevine seeds described by Terral et al (2010).…”

“…The results obtained from in vitro propagation meant a very high in vitro precocity of this wild plant material, higher than the cultivated one, which normally needs at least 15 days more of culture to reach similar level of development (Gribaudo et al, 1995;Troncoso et al, 1999).…”

Digital seed morphometry for genotype identification – Case study of seeds of excavated (15th century Hungary) and current vinegrape (Vitis v. vinifera) varieties

“…Most genera of Vitaceae have 2n = 38 chromosomes (n = 19), however species of Ampelocissus, Ampelopsis, Muscadinia and Parthenocissus have 2n = 40 chromosomes (n = 20), and species of the genus Cissus have 2n = 24 chromosomes (n = 12). Genus Vitis consists of about sixty inter-fertile species, including about fifteen spe-cies of agronomic importance (Terral et al 2010). Of them, grapevine (Vitis vinifera; 2n = 4x = 38) has the most significant role.…”

“…Groups, according to the final consumptions, are the wine grapes, table grapes, seedless grapes and raisins (Terral et al 2010).…”

“…Derived seed parameters also were formulated, e.g. seed width divided by seed length (Stummer 1911), size ratios of seed parameters (Mangafa and Kotsakis 1996), and elliptic Fourier transformation (Milanesi et al 2011, Terral et al 2010. All these measurements provided huge data for Vitis taxonomy, and became useful for identification of excavated seed remains (Gyulai et al 2011a, b, Milanesi et al 2011, Orrù et al 2013.…”