Portuguese traditional grapevine cultivars and wild vines (Vitis vinifera L.) share morphological and genetic traits

Abstract

Portugal has a long tradition in viticulture and a great number of grapevine cultivars. To analyze the genetic relations among wild vines from Portuguese populations and old Portuguese grapevine cultivars we use morphological traits and chloroplastidial microsatellites from 53 accessions of four distinct populations of Vitis vinifera L. ssp. sylvestris (Gmelin) and 57 accessions of Vitis vinifera L. ssp. vinifera from the Portuguese National Ampelographic Collection. Principal coordinate analyses with the scores obtain from the descriptors of both the accessions of sylvestris and vinifera vines revealed two groups. One group is formed by the wild vine population of Alcácer do Sal and three vinifera accessions Rufete, Seara Nova and Trincadeira das Pratas and a second group includes all the other wild vines and grapevine cultivars. A total of four different chlorotypes (A, B, C and D) are present in the vinifera accessions and two in the sylvestris accessions (A, B). Chlorotype A is the most frequent in all the plants analyzed and correspond to 75.4% of the grapevine cultivars and 66% of the wild vines. The mixed distribution of chlorotypes in the Portuguese cultivars and the predominance of chlorotype A both in its wild populations and cultivars reinforced the hypothesis that West Europe was a domestication center for Vitis vinifera L. ssp. vinifera.

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

“…Young leaves were collected from fifty-three plants of four different wild vine populations (Cunha et al 2009) and from fifty-seven grapevine varieties of the Portuguese National Ampelographic Collection (PRT051). Different morphological characteristics were the methodology used for selecting wild vines in the field.…”

“…DNA from all samples was extracted, following the protocol of Thomas et al (1993). Primer sequences and DNA analysis were carried out, following the protocols described by Almadanim et al (2007) and Cunha et al (2009). GENALEX software (Peakall & Smouse 2006) was used to calculate the number of alleles per locus (Na), the alleles' frequencies, and the percentage that were homozygous for each nuclear microsatellite locus.…”

Effects of native biodiversity on grape loss of four castes: testing the biotic resistance hypothesis

“…Portugal has a strong tradition in wine production (Cunha et al, 2009) and contains great concentrations of autochthonous grape castes, more than 290 (Böehm et al, 2007). About 2.2 % of the country's land area is occupied by vineyards, which places Portugal in first position regarding the relative importance of this habitat in relation to the country's area (International Organization of Vine and Wine -OIV, http://www.oiv.int/en/databases-and-statistics/ database?bdd=IG).…”

Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris (Gmeli) Hegi populations in Southern Portugal: assessing the genetic diversity for its future management and conservation

“…All of these populations are located in the Tagus River basin and in the Alentejo region (Cunha et al 2004). A selection of four of these wild-vine populations, in four distinct hydrological basins, has been characterised morphologically (Cunha et al 2007(Cunha et al , 2009, as well as its sanitary status assessed (Santos et al 2003). The aim of this work was to measure the present genetic diversity of these populations, using nuclear and chloroplastidial microsatellites as molecular markers.…”

“…The DNA was extracted following the protocol from Thomas et al (1993). The primers sequences, and the protocol used for DNA analysis with six nuclear microsatellites, were described in Almadanim et al (2007); the protocol for the four chloroplastidial microsatellites was described in Cunha et al (2009) …”