L. C. Carneiro

Portuguese traditional grapevine cultivars and wild vines ( Vitis vinifera L.) share morphological and genetic traits

Portugal has a long tradition in viticulture and a great number of grapevine cultivars. To analyze the genetic relations among wild vines from Portuguese populations and old Portuguese grapevine cultivars we use morphological traits and chloroplastidial microsatellites from 53 accessions of four distinct populations of Vitis vinifera L. ssp. sylvestris (Gmelin) and 57 accessions of Vitis vinifera L. ssp. vinifera from the Portuguese National Ampelographic Collection. Principal coordinate analyses with the scores obtain from the descriptors of both the accessions of sylvestris and vinifera vines revealed two groups. One group is formed by the wild vine population of Alcácer do Sal and three vinifera accessions Rufete, Seara Nova and Trincadeira das Pratas and a second group includes all the other wild vines and grapevine cultivars. A total of four different chlorotypes (A, B, C and D) are present in the vinifera accessions and two in the sylvestris accessions (A, B). Chlorotype A is the most frequent in all the plants analyzed and correspond to 75.4% of the grapevine cultivars and 66% of the wild vines. The mixed distribution of chlorotypes in the Portuguese cultivars and the predominance of chlorotype A both in its wild populations and cultivars reinforced the hypothesis that West Europe was a domestication center for Vitis vinifera L. ssp. vinifera.

Characterization of Portuguese populations of Vitis vinifera L. ssp. sylvestris (Gmelin) Hegi

Wild populations of Vitis vinifera L.␣have been located in Portugal. Morphological characterization was carried out in three populations located in Alcácer do Sal, Castelo Branco, and Montemor-o-Novo, and then compared using multivariate discriminant analysis. These populations were from three different hydrological basins, therefore cross-pollination was not possible. It was verified that in each population all plants were different. The data suggest that the frequency of female and male plants is rather variable in wild populations. The morphology of the adult leaf, from the Alcácer do Sal population, had particular features when compared with Castelo Branco and Montemor-o-Novo populations, which were more homogeneous. The length of teeth compared with width at the end of the base, and the density of prostrate hairs between and on main veins (lower side) were the variables which allowed the best discrimination among populations.