Assessing the identity of grapevine plants from vineyards from Crete and Samos by microsatellite profiling

Abstract

Four nuclear microsatellite markers were used for testing 45 plants visually selected from 18 locations in controlled origin wine areas of Crete and Samos, and representing 7 cultivars. Discrepancies between the obtained profile and a profile from a plant of reference of a given cultivar, were found for 26 plants. This suggested that microsatellite profiling at a small number of loci was an efficient procedure in order to detect and remove inappropriate material at an early stage of selection. In a second case, three plants were sampled from a vineyard, located in the controlled origin wine area of Dafnes in Crete, for testing their identity in comparison to cultivars of reference at 15 nuclear microsatellite loci. Only one matched its identity profile of reference. One of them was found to be a continental cultivar, named Fegi and not usually grown in Crete. This showed the resolution of microsatellite profiling for problems where misnaming at an early stage in nursery or trade could have important consequences for growers in controlled origin wine areas.