Genetic Characterization by SSR Markers of a Comprehensive Wine Grape Collection Conserved at Rancho de la Merced (Andalusia, Spain)

The IFAPA research center “Rancho de la Merced” (Jerez, Spain) hosts one of the oldest and most diverse grapevine germplasm repositories in Europe, and is aimed at providing feasible solutions to deal with any agronomic trait by exploring its genetic variability and by means of association and Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) editing studies. In this work, we focused on a wine and dual-use grapevine subcollection that consists of 930 accessions. Genetic analysis allowed to identify 521 unique genotypes. After comparing them with several databases, matches were found for 476 genetic profiles while the remaining 45 have not been previously described. Combination with clustering analysis suggested a total pool of 481 Vitis vinifera accessions that included some table cultivars. Several synonymies, homonymies and mislabeling have also been detected. Structure analysis allowed identifying six clusters according to eco-geographic cultivation areas and one additional group including non-vinifera accessions. Diversity analysis pointed out that Spanish Mediterranean varieties are genetically closer to oriental genotypes than to European varieties typical of oceanic and continental climates. The origin of Spanish varieties is discussed in depth considering our data and previous studies. Analysis of molecular variance partition confirmed a well-structured germplasm, although differentiation among groups had a much lower effect on genetic variability than differences within groups, which are strongly related to a very high heterozygosity. A core collection that covers all allele richness is proposed. It is constituted of about 13% of total accessions, and each cluster inferred by structure analysis is represented.