Abstract
Vitis vinifera includes a large number of cultivars that are further distinguished in biotypes and clones, and it is actually hard to differentiate them, even through complex molecular techniques. In this work, the plant materials of 56 putative Sangiovese and 14 putative Montepulciano biotypes, two of the most widespread black-berried Italian cultivars, were collected in different wine-growing areas of Italy distributed in 13 regions, from north to south. Firstly, the samples were analyzed using SSR markers to have proper varietal identification. According to the results, the genotypes belonged to three different cultivars: Sangiovese, Sanforte, and Montepulciano. Subsequently, the samples were investigated using AFLP, SAMPL, M-AFLP, and I-SSR molecular markers to estimate their intra-varietal genetic variability. The DNA marker-based method used turned out to be performing to bring out the geographic differences among the biotypes screened, and it can therefore be considered as a powerful tool available for all the grapevine varieties.
Highlights
Vitis vinifera L. is one of the oldest known fruit-producing crops that, over the centuries, has undergone strong domestication
According to the results obtained by the simple sequence repeats (SSR) marker-assisted screening at 11 microsatellite loci, the 78 samples analyzed can be divided into three variety clusters: 51 Sangiovese (Italian Catalogue of Grapevine Varieties code 218 [14]—Vitis International Variety Catalogue code 10680 [31]), 12 Sanforte (Italian Catalogue of Grapevine Varieties code 412—Vitis International Variety Catalogue code 7136, registered as Maiolica), and 15 Montepulciano (Italian Catalogue of Grapevine Varieties code 150—Vitis International Variety Catalogue code 7949)
Small portions of a woody branch of 56 putative Sangiovese vines (Vitis vinifera L. subsp. vinifera), belonging both to “Sangiovese grosso” and “Sangiovese piccolo” biotypes, were made available by some farm owners in different wine-growing districts located in 13 different regions along the Italian peninsula (Figure 1)
Summary
Vitis vinifera L. is one of the oldest known fruit-producing crops that, over the centuries, has undergone strong domestication. This process led to obtaining plants with hermaphroditic flowers (self-fertile), good fruitfulness, propagation capacity, and most of all optimal grape quality for fresh consumption or winemaking [1,2]. A biotype, or clonal line, is generally selected because standing out for some favorable phenotypic outcomes These intra-varietal special characteristics can be minor changes in morphological traits, such as bunch compactness and canopy thickness, or macroscopic modifications, such as fruit color (e.g., the grey and white variants of Pinot noir) [4,5,6,7]. It has been recently ascertained that intra-varietal differences can arise as plant responses to the environment through epigenetic modifications (clone-dependent DNA methylation patterns) that affect gene expression without altering the DNA sequence [10,11]
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