Evolution and history of grapevine (Vitis vinifera) under domestication: new morphometric perspectives to understand seed domestication syndrome and reveal origins of ancient European cultivars.
OBJECTIVE
In spite of the abundance of archaeological, bio-archaeological, historical and genetic data, the origins, historical biogeography, identity of ancient grapevine cultivars and mechanisms of domestication are still largely unknown. Here, analysis of variation in seed morphology aims to provide accurate criteria for the discrimination between wild grapes and modern cultivars and to understand changes in functional traits in relation to the domestication process. This approach is also used to quantify the phenotypic diversity in the wild and cultivated compartments and to provide a starting point for comparing well-preserved archaeological material, in order to elucidate the history of grapevine varieties.


METHODS
Geometrical analysis (elliptic Fourier transform method) was applied to grapevine seed outlines from modern wild individuals, cultivars and well-preserved archaeological material from southern France, dating back to the first to second centuries.


CONCLUSIONS
Significant relationships between seed shape and taxonomic status, geographical origin (country or region) of accessions and parentage of varieties are highlighted, as previously noted based on genetic approaches. The combination of the analysis of modern reference material and well-preserved archaeological seeds provides original data about the history of ancient cultivated forms, some of them morphologically close to the current 'Clairette' and 'Mondeuse blanche' cultivars. Archaeobiological records seem to confirm the complexity of human contact, exchanges and migrations which spread grapevine cultivation in Europe and in Mediterranean areas, and argue in favour of the existence of local domestication in the Languedoc (southern France) region during Antiquity.
Terral
Jean-Frédéric
JF
Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d'Ecologie, Equipe Ressources Biologiques, Sociétés, Biodiversité-UMR 5059 CNRS/UM2/EPHE, Institut de Botanique (Université Montpellier 2), 163 Rue Auguste Broussonet, 34090 Montpellier, France. terral@univ-montp2.fr
Tabard
Elidie
E
Bouby
Laurent
L
Ivorra
Sarah
S
Pastor
Thierry
T
Figueiral
Isabel
I
Picq
Sandrine
S
Chevance
Jean-Baptiste
JB
Jung
Cécile
C
Fabre
Laurent
L
Tardy
Christophe
C
Compan
Michel
M
Bacilieri
Roberto
R
Lacombe
Thierry
T
This
Patrice
P
D005075:Biological Evolution; D005060:Europe; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D012639:Seeds / Q000502:physiology*; D027843:Vitis / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*