Proceedings of the XLV Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy - 26/29 September, 2001

ISBN 88-900622-1-5

Poster Abstract

GENETIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE LOCAL VITIS VINIFERA VARIETIES FROM THE GRAPE-GROWING AREA OF CAMPANIA (ITALY)

MONACO A.*, COSTANTINI L.**, SEGALA C.**, FORLANI M.*, GRANDO M.S.**

* Dipartimento di Arboricoltura, Botanica e Patologia Vegetale, Facoltà di Agraria, Università Federico II, Via Università 100, 80055 Portici, Napoli, Italy

** Istituto Agrario di San Michele all'Adige, Lab. di genetica molecolare, Via Mach 1, 38010 Trento, Italy

stella.grando@mail.ismaa.it

genetic relationships, genotyping, microsatellites, Vitis vinifera

The spread of viticulture from Greece over Europe crossed intensively the Southern area of Italy. Due to their geographical position and historical roles, centres like Napoli, Caserta and the stretch of coast in the Campania region are therefore considered to have accumulated a broad grapevine biodiversity. During the past centuries, the propagation of grape by layers was a practical widespread which contributed to conserve numerous ancient genotypes. Moreover the volcanic origin of many soils in this area has prevented the phylloxera disease thus a lot of V. vinifera varieties existing in the early '800 are still present.

A project aiming to describe the current composition of grapevine germplasm spread in Campania was started in order to characterise the local wine varieties, to evaluate their genetic variability and to study genetic relationships with foreign grapevines.

Woody tissues were sampled from one hundred grapevines belonging to 53 varieties: a few of them are maintained in regional collections while others represent widely diffused cultivars like Aglianico, Fiano and Forastera, or minor varieties, e.g. Tronta, Pellecchiona and Palummina growing in vineyards where also very old vine plants could be found. Survey also included few reference cultivars and some identity controls of varieties cultivated in two or more different zones.

Microsatellite (SSR) were chosen as the most informative molecular markers to compare grapevine genotypes and in a first approach the loci VVS2, VVMD5, VVMD7, VVMD25, VVMD27, VVMD31, ssrVrZAG62 and ssrVrZAG79 were investigated. Pairwise comparisons of all individuals tested was performed and genetic distances between the cultivars were calculated. Results demonstrated the wide genetic variability of the germplasm sampled, total number of alleles per locus ranging between 6 to 9. Thirty height cultivars were distinguished on the basis of a unique genotype at SSR loci while the remaining accessions shared other 6 different microsatellite profiles.

Interesting cases of homonymy and synonymy were identified which are now subjected to further investigations.