Armenian grapevines: cytoembryological, morphological and chemical analysis

Abstract

The objectives of our study was to phenotype Armenian grapevines on the base of cytoembryological, morphometric and phenolic content analysis of 10 wine and 10 table cultivars (Vitis vinifera L.). The presented results suggest that Armenian table grape cultivars have higher level of abnormalities in the process of seed formation than wine cultivars. However, during ovule development, the observed differences between table and wine varieties were not significant. The berry morphometric analysis demonstrated that table cultivars formed significantly larger and heavier berries than wine cultivars. The obtained results show that wine grapes contained significantly higher phenol concentrations than table grapes, in both colored and white grapevine cultivars. The study of phenol composition, an important chemical descriptor in grapevine phenotyping, provides oenological information useful to improve the wine quality. Cultivar characterization could be used as marker for the selection of table and wine grape breeding programs. These results will be upgraded in the database for Armenian grapevine varieties. In future Armenian germplasm will be compared with datasets of neighboring countries, to determine the varietal origins relationships.