Genetic relationships among grapevine cultivars native to Croatia, Greece and Turkey

Three sets of grapevine cultivars were analysed: (1) 6 Croatian cultivars from the island of Hvar, (2) 5 Greek cultivars from the island of Paros and (3) 9 Turkish cultivars from the region of Anatolia. These cultivars were assayed by molecular markers (RAPDs with 8 primers and SSRs on 8 loci) and analyzed in terms of genetic similarity. Cluster analysis based on Dice genetic similarity indices resulted in dendrograms using two types of data. The cultivar DNA profiles showed that there were no synonyms among the groups of cultivars tested. Cluster analysis did not point to any particular relationship among cultivars from different regions, although AMOVA analysis showed greater genetic similarity between Greek and Croatian cultivars in contrast to Turkish cultivars.