Genetic diversity and relationships in the grapevine germplasm collection from Central Asia

The mountainous region between the Caucasus and China is considered the center of diversity for many temperate fruit crops. Also the transitional types of grapes, including wild forms of the subsp. Vitis sylvestris, cultivated landraces and ancient local varieties, were once common in this region. Despite Central Asia is considered a focal region of the world regarding grapevine development, limited information about the extent and distribution of grapevine genetic variation is available. Here we report the first assessment of genetic diversity, relationships and structure of 80 grapevine cultivars and 21 V. sylvestris accessions originated from the regions of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. We expanded the coverage of this survey to include a set of 53 traditional Georgian varieties and homologous SSR genotypes of 107 cultivars representing four V. vinifera ancestral subpopulations. This allowed us to evaluate the contribution of the Central Asian grapevine germplasm to diversification of the cultivated grapevine gene pool.