Study of Molecular Biodiversity and Population Structure of Vitis vinifera L. ssp. vinifera on the Volcanic Island of El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain) by Using Microsatellite Markers

Abstract

El Hierro island is postulated as the most biodiverse of the archipelago. To verify this hypothesis, the 87 individuals collected throughout the island were genotyped with 20 SSRs. As a result of this study, 28 varieties were described, 6 of which were new (Uval piñero, Uvalero volcánico, Pinar negro, Seis de Carlos, Tesoro blanco, Uval negro), and the first rose sport of the local Canary Islands variety Bermejuela was also found. Fifteen errors were detected in total. Eleven varieties were identified that were unknown to the vine growers and twenty individuals with variations (mutations) were found, of which two had already been described in a previous prospection in Lanzarote Island (intra-varietal variability). From this study, it is also proposed to incorporate 33 new names into the world database, corresponding mostly to the individuals and variations described for the first time, which represents a lexicographic enrichment. Finally, the singularity of the population of vines adapted to El Hierro island is demonstrated, not only with respect to the population of Canary Islands vines, but also with respect to the world population. The biodiversity and uniqueness of El Hierro and the Canary Archipelago reaffirm the proposal that the Canary Islands should be considered a world biodiversity centre.

Analysis of the Diversity Presented by Vitis vinifera L. in the Volcanic Island of La Gomera (Canary Archipelago, Spain) Using Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) as Molecular Markers

“…One of the main objectives of this study was to analyse the MP-SSRs of the 120 samples obtained during the La Gomera Island prospection with the 20 SSRs usually analysed by the TECNENOL research group. Once the MP-SSRs were obtained, they were compared with the TECNENOL database [41,42,[45][46][47][48] and with specialized books on Canary Islands grapevine varieties [14,43,50]. Finally, the MP-SSRs that were unknown were compared with a worldwide database (Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC)) [15,49].…”

“…This colour mutation is known in La Gomera Island as Marmajuelo negro [14]. This grouping provided four different MP-SSRs: (a) the identity itself known by the name Bermejuela; (b) the variation in one allele (VVS3-2), a profile already described by TECNENOL in El Hierro Island and named Bermajuelo del Echedo [41], which is also known on the island of La Gomera by the synonymous name Marmajuelo corto (Table S1); (c) the variation in two alleles (VVS3-2, SCU06-1) known as Marmajuelo de Vallehermoso; and (d) the variation in four alleles (VVS3-1, VVS3-2, VChr19a-1, VChr19a-2) known in La Gomera as Marmajuelo de Valle bajo.…”

“…This profile was named with its PN according to the VIVC, which in this case corresponded to the term Albillo forastero. Six MP-SSRs showed allelic length variation in one allele: (a) The variation in VVS3-1 (numerical change in the first SSR allele VVS3), which is known as Forastera de la Isla Redonda and was previously published by Fort et al [41]. (b) The VVS3-2 variation that was called Forastera blanca de Agulo.…”

“…In order to complete and give consistency to the hypotheses set out in the Discussion section, the possibility of comparing the population of 5 local vines from La Gomera Island with the collection of 309 individuals of Vitis vinifera ssp. vinifera from 22 countries of the world from the TECNENOL database [41,42,[45][46][47][48], always genotyped with the same 20 SSRs, was considered. This comparative study was carried out using two different strategies.…”

“…Because of this, the reference values from island studies are taken as reference values in order to minimise differences. Moita et al [54] studied a 34-grapevine population from the Azores archipelago with 14 SSRs; Avramidou et al [55] worked with 56 accessions from the island of Crete, genotyped with 13 SSRs; and TECNENOL prospected three islands with the same 20 SSRs: Lanzarote with 223 samples analysed (statistical study with 99 unique MP-SSRs) [42], El Hierro with 87 accessions genotyped (statistical study with 46 unique MP-SSRs) [41], and Fuerteventura with 40 samples analysed (statistical study with 15 unique MP-SSRs) [45]. In the La Gomera Island grapevine populations study, 120 samples were genotyped, and the statistical study was carried out to determine the goodness of the chosen kit, with 52 unique MP-SSRs.…”