Molecular analysis of historical wine grape variety candidates found in Urla

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1169200 (Table of Contents)

Urla had been an important center of viticulture and wine making due to its suitable ecology for vineyards. It is also known that there are some grape varieties endemic to this area. However, for various reasons, the viticulture in Urla started to diminish in the beginning of the twentieth century, almost getting to the point of extinction in the mid-century. As the interest for wines and wine grapes rose in the 1990s, vineyards have started to be rebuilt in this area. However, mostly foreign varieties are grown in these vineyards; the local cultivars are non-existent now, except for some small vineyards. Rebuilding of vineyards and wineries would be very valuable for both economic and touristic development of Urla. Detecting and registering local grape cultivars and producing high-quality chateau wines from these grapes would create a greater added value. Five grapevines that might represent different red wine grape varieties have been found in Urla. Although these vines might represent historical local grape cultivars, they might also be some examples of grape varieties that are already known. In this study the vines that were found in Urla were compared to the black grape cultivars collected from the Aegean Region, and to the major Turkish and the world red wine grape varieties, using molecular methods. For the molecular analyses, SSR (Simple Sequence Repeat) markers were utilized first. 14 grapevine varieties that show close relationship to the vines found in Urla were further analyzed with AFLP (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism) markers. UPGMA graph and genetic similarity coefficient values of the AFLP analysis indicated that Urla karası 4 and Urla karası 5 belong to grapevine accessions certainly different from the analyzed samples. However, in order to determine whether or not the vines found in Urla represent economically valuable novel red wine grape varieties, these should be further propagated and their wine qualitys were analysed.