RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Genetic Identification and Origin of Grapevine Cultivars (Vitis vinifera L.) in Tunisia JF American Journal of Enology and Viticulture JO Am. J. Enol. Vitic. FD American Society for Enology and Viticulture SP ajev.2013.12135 DO 10.5344/ajev.2013.12135 A1 Sana Ghaffari A1 Nejib Hasnaoui A1 Lalla Hasna Zinelabidine A1 Ali Ferchichi A1 José Miguel Martínez-Zapater A1 Javier Ibáñez YR 2013 UL http://www.ajevonline.org/content/early/2013/08/14/ajev.2013.12135.abstract AB Nine nuclear microsatellite (SSR) markers were used to characterize 35 wild grapevines (Vitis vinifera subsp. sylvestris) prospected from the Northwest part of Tunisia and 64 cultivated accessions (Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera) maintained in the repository of the Arid Land Institute of Medenine (Tunisia). All the analyzed SSR loci were found to be polymorphic revealing 62 distinct genotypes, including 31 cultivated accessions and 31 wild ones. Some cases of synonymies, color sports and homonymies were detected as well as matches with previously analyzed Tunisian samples, and with international cultivars. Chloroplast microsatellite analyses showed that chlorotype A was most abundant in wild samples (65%), whereas chlorotypes C and D were more frequent in cultivated genotypes (45% and 23% respectively). Genotypic analysis of Tunisian wild and cultivated accessions showed that both sets of samples maintain high levels of genetic variation and high average posterior probabilities of assignment to their group of origin. This is in agreement with the estimated low gene flow between cultivated and wild forms, revealing that most cultivated accessions do not derive directly from the local wild populations but could correspond to materials introduced from different locations during historical times or derived from spontaneous hybridizations among them. However, we could not discard the hypothesis that a few analyzed samples such as Bezzoul Kalba Bidha or E Rwayssiya 3 could arise from hybridization events between wild and cultivated grapevines.