Genetic analysis of grapevine cultivars from the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey, based on SSR markers

Abstract

: Turkey is one of the centres for grapevine diversity with many local grapevine cultivars with potentially desirable characteristics are still widely cultivated throughout several regions in the country. One of such regions is the Eastern Mediterranean region of the country. To characterize the grapevine germplasm of this region, we performed a genetic analysis of 59 grapevine cultivars using 14 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci. The genetic relationships of the cultivars which did not appear to be linked to their ecogeographical distributions within the region were determined. Among the cultivars analyzed in this study, several synonymous and homonymous cultivars were identified, suggesting that some of the grapevine cultivars with different names might be genetically identical while some cultivars with the same names might be genetically different. This study represents a first step toward the genetic characterization of the grapevine genotypes of this region and will help promote more effective germplasm management and breeding programs.

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

“…Yılmaz et al (Yılmaz et al, 2020) investigated 88 grapevine genotypes from the Central Anatolia region in Türkiye using SSR markers and reported genetic distances ranging from 0.056 to 0.207. Different genetic similarity/dissimilarity values among Turkish genotypes have been reported from different groups (Tangolar et al, 2009;Boz et al, 2011), which can be explained by the smaller size of the genotypes and different types of markers used in comparison with our study.…”

“…Many genotypes, such as the two "Foca Razakısı" (c-7-5 and b-4-2), the two "I ̇nek Memesi" (b-3-4 and c-4-3), the two "Nezi Üzümü" (b-2-8 and c-10-5), the two "Sam Üzümü" (b-3-7 and c-11-5) and the two Regina (b-6-6 and c-3-6) have same names but different origins and did not cluster in the dendrogram and seemed to be homonymous. Possible synonyms and homonyms in Turkish grapevine germplasm have been previously reported by Ergül et al (Ergül et al, 2006), , Tangolar et al (Tangolar et al, 2009), Boz et al (Boz et al, 2011), I ̇sçi et al (Burcak and DI ̇LLI ̇, 2015) and Yılmaz et al (Yılmaz et al, 2020). Genotyping in these studies is mainly based on SSR markers which are very useful for genetic diversity evaluation and cultivar identification, including the detection of synonyms and homonyms (Cipriani et al, 2010;Laucou et al, 2011;Emanuelli et al, 2013).…”

“…Despite its high importance and implemented conservation strategies in Viticulture Research Institutes, molecular characterization of Turkish genotypes lagged behind other grape-producing countries. In the past, various grapevines, including both cultivated and wild genotypes from different geographical regions of Türkiye, have been analyzed using SSR markers to estimate the genetic diversity and structure ( Vouillamoz et al., 2006 ; Selli et al., 2007 ; Tangolar et al., 2009 ; Boz et al., 2011 ; Yılmaz et al., 2020 ). A research project aimed to characterize 1150 Turkish genotypes in Tekirdağ Viticulture Research Institute by SSR markers; however, its results are not published ( Gökbayrak and Söylemezoglu, 2010 ).…”

“…( Vouillamoz et al., 2006 ), Tangolar et al. ( Tangolar et al., 2009 ), Boz et al. ( Boz et al., 2011 ), İşçi et al.…”