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  • Author(s): Reebs, Stéphan
  • Source:
    Natural History. Oct2006, Vol. 115 Issue 8, p12-13. 2p. 1 Color Photograph.
  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      VINEYARDS; CULTIVARS; GRAPE varieties; ARROYO-Garcia, Rosa; MARTINEZ-Zapater, Jose Miguel; PLANT geneticists; PLANT genetics
    • Subject Terms:
      EURASIA
    • Abstract:
      This article examines whether all grapevine cultivars around the Mediterranean today are descendants of the wild Eurasian grape, Vitis vinifera sylvestris. Rosa Arroyo-García and Jose Miguel Martinez-Zapater, both plant geneticists at the National Center of Biotechnology in Madrid, Spain, said probably not. With the help of an international team of collaborators, Arroyo-García and Martinez-Zapater discovered molecular evidence against a single ancestral grape population. Their team analyzed the DNA of more than 1,200 cultivars and wild plants from around the Mediterranean. They discovered that more than 70 percent of Portuguese and Spanish cultivars are related to local wild-grape populations.