Genetic characterization of Croatian grapevine cultivars and detection of synonymous cultivars in neighboring regions

Twenty-two native Croatian grapevine varieties representing three different growing and climatic regions (Dalmatia, Istria, continental Croatia) have been genotyped at nine SSR loci. The identical genotypes of the Croatian cultivars Plavina and Brajdica confirmed the hypothesis they are the same variety. Comparing the SSR profiles of the Croatian cultivars with the profiles stored in a database containing about 300 European cultivars, further three pairs of synonyms were revealed: Teran Bijeli shares its genotype with the Italian cultivar Prosecco, Muskat Ruza Porecki corresponds to cv. Rosenmuskateller from North Italy and Moslavac is identical to the Hungarian variety Furmint. The microsatellite-based definitions of these synonyms are strongly supported by ampelographic observations. The genetic variability within the investigated Croatian cultivars was high with a genetic diversity of 75 %. A dendrogram based on allele sharing distances reflected neither common morphological features nor common geographic origins of the cultivars