Abstract/Summary

Twenty unknown accessions maintained in the field collection of the Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation (IAC), Split, Croatia, were identified. Morphological validation was done using standard OIV descriptors encompassing shoot, leaf and cluster characteristics. A standard set of nine simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were amplified and genetic diversity indices were calculated. The allelic data of the 20 unknown genotypes were compared with reference SSR profiles from the European database Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC; http://www.vivc.de/) and grape germplasm collection of the UK. Three accessions proved to be mislabelled and were identified as known European grapevine cultivars (‘Blaufraenkisch’, ‘Chardonnay’ and ‘Merlot’), two unknown accessions showed identical genotypes matching ‘Chasselas blanc’ and ‘Chasselas rose’, while 12 unknown genotypes confirmed their declared status. Finally, three unknown genotypes of interspecific crosses (‘Ljana’, ‘Original’, ‘Nero’) were not found in VIVC database or in published literature, revealing SSR profiles that are novel to the best of our knowledge. This study presents necessary information to establish cultivar status (true to type) of 20 unknown accessions from the IAC Split grape collection.