Genetic study of grape cultivars used for the production of Malvasia wine by RAPDs

Abstract

Malvasia, the famous Greek wine, that has been internationally known since the 14th century was probably made by the use of several grape cultivars. Main cultivars were (or among these cultivars ) Monevasia, Athiri, Thrapsathiri, Aidani, Trifera, Glykerithra, Ladikino, Tactas etc which are characterized by their peculiar light aroma. Ten decamer primers of arbitrary nucleotide sequence were used to amplify genomic DNA through the polymerase chain reaction (RAPD- PCR) in order to identify and discriminate between fifteen grape cultivars grown in different areas in Greece and seven of the Malvasia group grown mainly in Italy, which probably have been used for the production of Malvasia wine. The results indicated that there is genetic variation among the above cultivars, as the degree of genetic similarity detected electrophoretically ranging from 0.56 to 0.88, except for the cv Malvasia del chianti and Malvasia lunga which were found to be identical. A comparatively low degree of genetic similarity was found between the cv Monevasia with all the cultivars of Malvasia group.