Characterization of Autochthonous Grapevine Cultivars (Vitis vinifera L.) from the Aegean Region of Turkey Using Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs)

Thirty-six autochthonous grapevine cultivars from the Aegean region of Turkey in addition to standard cultivars Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (Vitis vinifera L.) were fingerprinted using SSR markers to assess their genetic relationships. Eleven SSR primers produced successful amplifications and yielded 37 polymorphic bands. The number of bands per primer changed between 2 and 6 while the number of polymorphic bands was between 2 and 3.6. Dice genetic similarity coefficients ranged between 0.296 and 0.882 among the genotypes. The UPGMA dendrogram showed two main groups. The first group was composed of Sultan Dimriti, Veyis and Guvercin Gozu cltivars. A large number of sub-groups were placed in the second group which included the majority of autochthonous cultivars. The genetic differences among the autochthonous cultivars and reference cultivars were clearly observed. The results showed that cultivars Siyah Razaki and Parmak (0.96) were the most similar ones. Synonyms were identified for Inek Memesi and Ufak Dimrit cultivars. In addition, homonymous cultivars were detected. SSR markers have proved to be an efficient tool for fingerprinting grapevine cultivars and conducting genetic diversity studies.