Abstract
The protection of grapevine biodiversity and the safeguarding of genetic variability are certainly primary and topical objectives for wine research, especially in territories historically devoted to viticulture. To assess the autochthonous germplasm of three different districts of Southern Umbria (Central Italy), the plant material of 70 grapevines retrieved from reforested land plots or old vineyards was collected, and their genetic identity was investigated using 13 microsatellite markers (SSR). The results revealed the presence of 39 unique genotypes, divided into 24 already-known cultivars and 15 never-reported SSR profiles. Most of the grapevine accessions were then vegetatively propagated and cultivated in a vineyard collection both to be protected from extinction and to be evaluated at the ampelographic level. Overall, this work emphasizes the need for recovering the threatened genetic variability that characterizes minor neglected grapevine cultivars or biotypes of Southern Umbria germplasm, and the requirement to revalue and exploit the more valuable genetic resources to enhance the local agri-food economy.
Highlights
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To explore the biodiversity of autochthonous grapevine from Southern Umbria, samples from 70 vines were collected in marginal vineyards not subjected to renewal in the last decades or in wooded areas where they were found as isolated relic plants
Genotyping was applied using a set of 13 SSR markers encompassing the nine SSR markers recommended by the European project GrapeGen06 [17]
Summary
Received: 28 June 2021Accepted: 19 July 2021Published: 27 July 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).Umbria is one of the smallest regions in the central part of the Italian Peninsula and is characterized by a landlocked landscape of rolling hills. Because of its pivotal position, Umbria always had important historical roles, often being a territory of disputes between the different neighboring domains, but above all, it was a key hub for major commercial routes and agricultural trades, in both north–south (from and to Rome) and east–west directions (between the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas). Umbria has developed a well-established winemaking tradition that dates to the Etruscan period and persists to this day due to its favorable climate [1]. Until the recent past, wine production in this region was exclusively for family use and was primarily represented by mixed viticulture [2]. Throughout the
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