Genetic characterization of autochthonous grapevine cultivars from Eastern Turkey by simple sequence repeats (SSRs)

In this research, two well-recognized standard grape cultivars, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, together with eight historical autochthonous grapevine cultivars from Eastern Anatolia in Turkey, were genetically characterized by using 12 pairs of simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers in order to evaluate their genetic diversity and relatedness. All of the used SSR primers produced successful amplifications and revealed DNA polymorphisms, which were subsequently utilized to evaluate the genetic relatedness of the grapevine cultivars. Allele richness was implied by the identification of 69 alleles in 8 autochthonous cultivars with a mean value of 5.75 alleles per locus. The average expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity were found to be 0.749 and 0.739, respectively. Taking into account the generated alleles, the highest number was recorded in VVC2C3 and VVS2 loci (nine and eight alleles per locus, respectively), whereas the lowest number was recorded in VrZAG83 (three alleles per locus). Two main clusters were produced by using the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram constructed on the basis of the SSR data. Only Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot cultivars were included in the first cluster. The second cluster involved the rest of the autochthonous cultivars. The results obtained during the study illustrated clearly that SSR markers have verified to be an effective tool for fingerprinting grapevine cultivars and carrying out grapevine biodiversity studies. The obtained data are also meaningful references for grapevine domestication

Genetic characterization of Iranian grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) and their relationships with Italian ecotypes

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is one of the oldest and most important fruit crops in the world. Iran is considered as one of the regions where grapevine plants have been used and taken into cultivation. In the present study, 12 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used to evaluate the genetic diversity among Iranian grape cultivars and their relationships with Italian ones. The observed number of alleles (N) per locus varied from 6 to 20 and also the number of effective alleles (Ne) ranged from 1.34 to 2.00 among cultivars, indicating that the SSRs were highly informative. The polymorphism information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.49 to 0.87 and classified the six loci as highly informative markers (PIC > 0.70). The mean observed heterozygosity (Ho) was higher (0.85) than the mean expected heterozygosity (He) (0.43), demonstrating a random union of gametes in the population. Genetic similarity among cultivars ranged from 0.14 to 0.93, indicating high genetic variation among them. UPGMA and Bayesian clustering analyses revealed high genetic variation among studied cultivars and grouped them into two main clusters. The present findings might render striking information in breeding management strategies for genetic conservation and cultivar improvement