Esplorazione della variabilità a loci marcatori e funzionali nelle varietà di vite della Sicilia

Indigenous grape cultivars identified in oldSicilian vineyards were collected from ex situ collection fields. A total of 383 grapevine accessions wereanalysed at 6 microsatellite lociin order to evaluatetheir genetic identity. The results showed the realdiversity of this germplasm and pointed out a strongrelationship between the Sicilian and Calabriangermplasm and occasional identities with Sardinian,French and Spanish cultivars. The main traditionalSicilian varieties showed unique molecular profiles.Our work aims to outline the Sicilian gene pool, con-tributing to the knowledge of the vine flows that havemarked the germplasm of the island. Moreover, byexploring single nucleotide polymorphisms inexpressed genes, we started a functional characterization of the principal quality cultivars of Sicilia.