WELCOME TO ARMENIAN VITIS DATABASE
Armenian Vitis Database is
established in the scope of the bilateral project between the Institute of
Molecular Biology NAS RA and Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof
(JKI), supported by Science Committee, Ministry of Education and Science of
Armenia, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Vine and Wine
Foundation of Armenia (VWFA).
The main purpose of the project was the comprehensive characterization of the grapevine accessions conserved in the Armenian National Grapevine Collection, which was established in 2016 by the support of FAO. Scientific goals of the project were:
ülong-term preservation of the Vitis genetic resources in Armenia to ensure its availability also for future generations
üassessment of trueness-to-type of varieties decreasing the number of misnomers, homonyms and synonyms affecting the Armenian collection
ücomprehensive characterization of genetic resources, to promote their use
and ensure the competitiveness and robustness of the production sector
üstudy of old, endangered and poorly known varieties for their agronomic
performances
üdocumentation of the outcome of the studies in the
Armenian Vitis Database, Vitis International
Variety Catalogue and the European Vitis Database
Armenian Vitis Database is a public information source, including molecular and ampelographic characterization of Armenian grape germplasm using i) multi-crop passport data (FAO/Bioversity Multi-Crop Passport Descriptors), which contains basic information about the accession, including prime name, the accession number, which is a unique code assigned by the curator of the collection, the berry colour, etc. ii) set of nine SSR markers recommended by the European project GrapeGen06 (VVS2, VVMD5, VVMD7, VVMD25, VVMD27, VVMD28, VVMD32, VrZAG62 and VrZAG79) iii) OIV descriptors for ampelographic characterization ((Descriptors for grapevine Vitis spp.) (http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/fileadmin/bioversity/More_pubs/393_Descriptors_for_grapevine__Vitis_spp._.pdf)).
The application of molecular markers in combination with ampelography proved to be efficient for confirming synonyms, homonyms and clarification of questionable cases. In the scope of the project, the obtained SSR fingerprints allowed comparison of the Armenian grapevine germplasm with genetic profiles in the Vitis International Variety Catalogue database searching for synonyms with respect to different countries. Numerous cases of synonyms, homonyms, questionable and unique genotypes preserved in Armenian National Grapevine Collection were detected. The obtained results indicate the uniqueness of the major part of the investigated varieties and reveal a substantial level of genetic variation within the Armenian grapevines. Based on the realized large-scale investigation a true-to-type inventory of Armenian grape germplasm is carried out and documented also in the Vitis International Variety Catalogue (www.vivc.de) and in the European Vitis database (www.eu-vitis.de).