‘Malvasia nera di Brindisi/Lecce’ grapevine cultivar (<i>Vitis vinifera</i> L.) originated from ‘Negroamaro’ and ‘Malvasia bianca lunga’

Abstract

‘Malvasia nera di Brindisi’ and ‘Malvasia nera di Lecce’ are two of the few Malvasias with black berries and belong to the Apulian ampelographic assortment (South Italy). Their presumed synonymy has been recently ascertained with SSR markers and therefore these two black 'Malvasias' can be considered as an unique variety. We discovered that this cultivar is the cross between ‘Malvasia bianca lunga’ alias ‘Malvasia del Chianti’ and ‘Negroamaro’ by using 42 nuclear SSR. Both parents belong to the Apulian varietal resources, since centuries. So far, ‘Malvasia nera di Brindisi/Lecce’ origin has been obscure; now we may assert that this cultivar was born right in Apulia. Three sets of chloroplast SSR loci were used to determine the female and the male parent: 6 ccmp loci, already used in previous pedigree studies, 15 ccSSR loci and 2 NTCP loci, derived from tobacco. The second set of loci was sequenced in order to compare the length of the markers with the reference species where they were originally obtained: in 4 cases no microsatellite motives were detected and in other 4 cases the perfect repetition found in tobacco was not maintained in grape. Unfortunately, the three sets of markers failed to show any polymorphism. A detailed comparison of the black Malvasia morphology with its two parents showed a closer similarity to ‘Negroamaro’. Also the anthocyanin profile is in agreement with that of the black parent; its varietal aroma presents interesting levels of free and bound 2-phenylethanol, responsible for rose flavor, and of bound linalool compounds.